JOIN USThe Centre plans to open ‘Jan Aushadhi’ stores in all the districts in Karnataka and asked the State government to submit a detailed proposal to the Department of Pharmaceuticals at the earliest.
When Chief Minister Siddaramaiah met Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers, Ananth Kumar, here on Thursday, the latter asked him to submit a detailed proposal to the ministry and sign a memorandum of understanding between the Karnataka government and the Department of Pharmaceuticals for opening such stores.
At affordable prices
The Jan Aushadi (medicine for the people) campaign is an initiative of the Department of Pharmaceuticals of the Central government to provide quality medicines at affordable prices to the general public.
In the districts, these stores will be set up either in the district government hospitals or at a suitable place as per the recommendations of the State government, Ananth Kumar told reporters.
The Central government plans to open 3,000 Jan Aushadhi stores all over the country in the next three years to sell 360 generic medicines in collaboration with charitable trusts and non-governmental organisations.
Additional incentive
Owners of these low-cost pharmacies would get a margin of 16 per cent from medicine sales.
There will be an additional government incentive at the rate of 10 per cent of the sales volume.
The medicines would be procured by the Department of Pharmaceuticals from the public sector units and private firms. Subsequently, the drugs would be supplied to the stores for retail sale under the Jan Aushadhi scheme, Ananth Kumar said.