BHUBANESWAR: Pharmacy associations of the State are up in arms against the State Government’s apathetic attitude towards pharmacists and pharmacy students.
Members of the associations alleged there has been no initiative to create job opportunities for pharmacists, who are being compelled to work as health workers and ambulatory supporting staff with less salary.
Though Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET) through central counselling admits DPharm students into institutions approved by Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), at the time of recruitment in the Government sector, Directorate of Health Services (DHS) issues advertisement for students who have passed from AICTE approved institutions, they claimed.
State president of Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) Sruti Ranjan Mishra said pharmacy students are a harassed lot in the State. There is no cadre and scale of pay is very less for pharmacists employed in various Government hospitals working in rural areas and maintaining community health, he said.
“The two-year three month Diploma in Pharmacy Course takes minimum three to four years to complete, because of delayed procedures by Odisha State Board of Pharmacy (OSBP), who controls academic and examination activities. In this age of e-Governance OSBP does not have an e-mail ID and website of its own,” Mishra said.
The association members alleged BPharm and MPharm students do not get provisional and final certificates along with mark sheets from Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) on time and the university is yet to provide final mark sheets of some of the pharmacy students who passed out in 2012.
State branches of IPA, Indian Pharmaceutical Graduates Association, Associate of Pharmacy Teachers’ of India and Odisha Pharmacy Intellectual Forum, Odisha Bachelor Pharmacy Association and Odisha Pharmacy College Association have criticised the Government for planning to issue no-objection certificate for opening of 117 new private pharmacy institutions instead of creating job opportunities to stop skilled migration.
They said the plan keeps no meaning when Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has passed a resolution not to approve pharmacy institutions in the country except North-Eastern States and issued moratorium for a period of five years from 2020 academic session to stop mushrooming of such institutions.