15 July 2018:
Thousands of Bachelor of Pharmacy (B Pharma) degree holders of the State are agitated over a rule of the State Government which makes them ineligible for being appointed as Allopathic Pharmacist in the Government hospitals. As per the rule, only diploma holders in pharmacy ( D.Pharma) are eligible for the post of pharmacist.
Distraught over the glaring incongruity, these graduate pharmacists are demanding the State Government to amend the outdated service regulations of allopathic pharmacists to make them eligible for appointments. Under the banner of Unemployed Graduate Pharmacy Association of Uttarakhand, these youths have threatened to undertake an agitation if their demand of amendment in service regulation of pharmacists is not accepted.
The patron of the association Ravindra Jugran told the newsmen here on Saturday that there are 17 colleges in Uttarakhand which are approved by the Pharmacy Council of India and about 7000 trained pharmacy graduates pass out every year from them. It is unjustified to keep them out of the appointment process of Allopathic pharmacists, he said.
He, further, informed that according to the notification of Pharmacy Council of India, both degree and diploma holders of pharmacy are eligible for being appointment as pharmacist and in many states and even in the Central Government departments, this notification is being followed.
The president of the association Saurabh Gusain said that it is unfortunate that on one hand the B.Pharma graduates are being given private drug licenses for sale of medicines and, on the other, they are not being considered for Government jobs.
He added that the B.Pharma graduates are being appointed in railways, armed forces, Red Cross Society, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and paramilitary forces.
