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Pharmacists' protest today

By Our Staff Reporter

KOZHIKODE DEC. 9. K. Muraleedharan, MP, will inaugurate the mass dharna being organised under the aegis of the district committee, Federation of Indian Pharmacists Organisations (FIPO), in front of the Income Tax office at Mananchira here on December 10. The dharna is being held as part of the nationwide strike of the FIPO.

The FIPO is protesting against the treatment meted out to pharmacists as part of its alleged "anti-people health and drug policy of the Centre".

A major protest of the pharmacists is against the recommendation of the Parliamentary committee appointed by the Petroleum and Chemicals Ministry, that pharmacists were not needed in the medicine distribution operations. The FIPO alleged that this was a covert attempt by multinationals in the pharmaceutical field to gain ascendancy in the medicine distribution operations. Such a measure would have grave repercussions for the general public as far as prices of drugs were concerned.

It is pointed out that once the Patent Act comes into force, there would be grave disparities in the prices of identical drugs, and qualified pharmacists would be in a position to detect this, and hence the attempt to keep them away from the field.

Pharmacists are also demanding a uniform pay scale on a country-wide level, stringent implementation of the drug laws, bring private hospitals and nursing homes under the Drugs Act, and the like. The FIPO is also demanding that in enterprises that work over eight hours, more than one pharmacist should be appointed.

The union leaders, K. Sadiri Koya (INTUC), T. Dasan ( CITU), K.M. Kuttikrishnan (AITUC), E.K.K. Mohammed (STU), among others, will address the gathering, according to a release.

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