Chennai: As many as 1,000 ‘Mudhalvar Marundhagangal’ pharmacies providing medicines at subsidised prices to the people across Tamil Nadu was inaugurated on Monday by Chief Minister M K Stalin. The initiative not only offers expensive medicines at affordable prices to the members of the public but also ensures employment opportunities for 1,500 B.Pharm and D.Pharm holders, the Chief Minister said.
Medicines will be available at discounts up to 75 percent. "This would reduce the financial burden of the people dependent on medicines on a long-term basis. We wanted to end the situation where the public has to pay a high price to buy medicines and these pharmacies would help to reduce their financial burden," Stalin said at the inauguration.
Pharmacists and cooperative societies have been provided subsidy and required financial assistance to operate the ventures. While the entrepreneurs were provided Rs 3 lakh, the cooperative societies were provided a subsidy of Rs 2 lakh. "These pharmacies have been stocked with three months’ supply of medicine and warehouses have been established in all the 38 districts across the state," he said.
AIADMK leader Dr C Vijayabhaskar slammed the DMK government for launching the scheme that was rolled out by former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa during her tenure in 2014.
"This scheme was launched by Jayalalithaa when she was the Chief Minister, through the cooperative department. Though those pharmacies still exist in certain pockets, the scheme was not implemented in totality because it contained the name 'Amma'," the former Health Minister told reporters after participating in the AIADMK leader's 77th birth anniversary celebrations at the AIADMK state headquarters here.
"The ‘Mudhalvar Marundhagangal’ scheme was launched to conceal Amma's name. This is unacceptable. This is like affixing a sticker on the AIADMK initiative," Vijayabhaskar added. BJP state chief K Annamalai too slammed the ruling dispensation saying "a copy can never become an original" and posted a picture of the Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015.
