Medical shop owners should only be seen as witnesses in spurious drug cases and not booked as accused. The legislation governing spurious drugs should be amended to this effect, demanded the Krishna District Chemists and Druggists Association here on Sunday.
Participating in the 68 anniversary of the association, the office-bearers said that medical shop owners would be forced to intensify their agitation if the law was not amended. They said that they should be only witnesses because they were purchasing the drugs from registered wholesale distributors.
The members also protested against the efforts of the Central government to curtail their profit margin.
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They appealed to MLAs Malladi Vishnu and Vellampalli Srinivas, and MLC Ilapuram Venkaiah to plead their case with the Central government. The MLAs said these issues were not in the purview of the State government, but they would prevail on it to take up the issue with the Centre.
Drug Controllers’ Association state president M. Amrutha Rao said cases had to be booked against the medical shop owners and staff as per the law. The amendment of the law was in the purview of the government.
Until that happened, medical shop owners should double check the goods they were purchasing.
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Association general secretary P.S. Patnaik, Federation of Drug Traders of A.P. general secretary J. Sateesh Rao, and president B. Venkata Raju spoke.
They sought the cooperation of the elected representatives in conveying their demands to the government.