The Food and Drug Controller has instructed all the medical store owners of the State capital to install air conditioners in their shops. There are about 1,500 medical stores in the city. All the medical stores attached to big hospitals are air-conditioned, but among the rest, only one or two are air-conditioned.
Chairman of the Medicine Distributors Association, Rajeshwar Singh Thakur has, however, termed this instruction impractical. However, in view of the increasing heat, this instruction has been issued to the Medicine Distributors Association.
According to officers, rules exist to air-condition the stores for keeping the medicines secured, as their quality could be affected due to hot weather. However, only a few medical stores in the State capital are air-conditioned.
Meanwhile, Rajeshwar Singh Thakur said that he has not received any circular in this respect. He said that the Central government makes rules for the medical store pharmacy. However, the Central government has not made any provision in this regard.
The medical store operators are small traders and this instruction will heap financial burden on them. There were no cases of damage to medicines due to heat condition reported during the last 15-20 years, they stated.
According to a source linked to pharmacy business, 18-20 degree Celsius temperature should be maintained in medical stores and for that, the stores should be air-conditioned. Medicines get damaged because of humidity from air coolers. Only a few medical stores in the city are air-conditioned and the rest are functional with God’s grace.
The instruction has been issued at the behest of Food and Drug Controller Kamalpreet Singh. The medical store owners have also been asked to make arrangements so that sun rays do not directly enter their shops.
Most of the 1,500 medical stores in Raipur are functional in 150 to 300 square feet areas. If this instruction is implemented compulsorily, each trader will have to spend Rs40,000 to 50,000, besides payment of huge electricity bill every month.
At present, the medical stores keep sensitive and expensive medicines in refrigerators and use room coolers to save themselves from the scorching heat. However, with room coolers, humidity will be there in the room, which will damage the medicine also.