Resentment is brewing between the Andhra Pradesh Pharmacy Council (APPC) and the Drug Control Authority (DCA) in Andhra Pradesh during the last some months due to the highhandedness of the DCA in appointing the registrar without the APPC president’s consent.

There is allegation that the DCA has appointed a person of its own choice as registrar without the APPC president’s consent. It is alleged that this appointment has been made to control and curtail the powers of APPC and to do away with reforms in the council so that the nexus between the DCA officials and drug traders is protected.

The APPC has recently hiked the registration fee from Rs.500 to 5000 per candidate. Taking this as a pretext, the DCA has appointed a new registrar through government. “Bringing a registrar from DCA is nothing but to nullify the activities of APPC which is just rejuvenating. Even the court had stayed the matter. In spite of this, the new registrar had come in to the president’s office and highhandedly locked the president room,” said Vijay R Annappa Reddy, president of APPC.

After being run by a single president over the past 28 years, recently Annappa Reddy has been elected as president of APPC.

As part of its plans to bring in transparency and strengthen its activities, APPC has brought in new reforms in state’s pharmacy council. These reforms include atomization of registration process, enhancement of fee structure to improve financial status of the council and systematic digitization of old records and data pertaining to registrations and renewals in the state. The council is also planning to speed up its process and bring in transparency so that no middle men exists which is the main cause of corruption.

These reforms are being opposed by the drug trade mafia and few internal officials both in APPC and DCA.

It is also alleged that the former president, who had ruled the council for the past 28 years, had been involved in various corrupt practices in collusion with the DCA and drug trade mafia in the state. It is further learnt from the sources that because of the corrupt practices resorted to by the officials, be it in APPC, DCA or PCB, thousands of crores of rupees have been lost to the exchequer and millions of pharmacy graduates have been denied jobs.