More than 17,000 medical stores in the State remained closed on Friday protesting against the provisions in the new drug policy of Centre.
Except for five medical stores, all other, 1,400, medical stores in the State capital remained closed causing much trouble for the patients and their kin.
Surendra Singh, a resident of Indrapuri area said, "My mother is a blood pressure patient and need to take Asomex 2.5 every morning, unfortunately she ran out of medicines on Friday. None of the medical stores in the periphery was open due to which I had to approach Red Cross hospital drug stores."
Sukanya Bhosale, a 41-year-old resident of Chunabhatti area said not a single chemist shop was open in the Kolar road area, "My 10-year-old son is suffering from dehydration but to purchase medicines for him I had to approach the medical store in JP hospital. There too I had to stand in a long queue after which I was able to purchase the medicines," added Bhosale.
Kin of patients admitted in the private hospital also had to face the brunt as every medicine the hospital administration prescribed had to be brought from one of the five medical stores that were functioning in the city. Though by the evening, few smaller medical stores in the outer areas of the State capital opened but the shops in main drug market near Gandhi Medical College (GMC) remained closed.
Bhopal Chemist Association president lalit Jain said that the strike was completely successful in Bhopal. Though due to the strike, medical stores had to face loss of over Rs 70 crore alone in State capital.
Jain further said that the main demands of the chemists are provision in the new drug policy to reduce commission of wholesalers by five per cent and 15 per cent for retailers should be withdrawn. Small traders will fail to make their ends meet if the commissions are decreased.
Jain said that the country's medical traders are annoyed with the non-uniformity in the price of life-saving drugs also. The traders are objecting to the provisions made in Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Act, 2008 which stipulates action against chemists and druggists too who may be found selling spurious drugs.
Association is also opposing the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail. In place of harming small profit margins of chemists, Government should target multinational drug companies who have profit margin of 300 per cent, added Jain.