Mumbai : Union minister of state for fertilizers and chemicals Hansaraj Ahir announced that generic medicine shops under the Jan Aushadhi scheme would soon be started in the state.
“The ministry officials had several meetings with the state health department officials including health minister Dr Deepak Sawant. One such meeting is under way as we speak,” Ahir said. “The first shop under this scheme in Maharashtra is expected to start sometime next month,” he said.
“We had plans to start 3,000 such shops across the country. But, due to lack of manufacturers and infrastructure, it got delayed. Though we started the first shop under the scheme in Delhi in June this year, we are hopeful that around 1,000 shops would be opened across the country by the end of this year,” he added.
The minister also said that in all, 504 medicines have been identified to be made available in these shops along with 200 medico-surgical instruments. “Tendering and other procedures have been completed for 425 medicines,” he said.
“Our idea is to have these medicines in all PHCs, district hospitals, corporation hospitals, government hospitals. These places have the requisite space and number of customers to sustain these shops. We are also planning to provide subsidy to unemployed youngsters to run these shops,” he said.
“Apart from a subsidy of Rs 2.5 lakh, another scheme is to have mobile generic medicine shops. We are working on that model also,” the minister said.
‘Manmohan Singh cannot escape blame in coal scam’
When asked about former prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh being absolved in a case related to the scam, Ahir said: “He has been absolved in one of the several cases related to coal block allocations and that does not mean he can escape the blame for the scam…If Dr. Singh was innocent, why did the block allocation have to be cancelled in the first place?”
