The Government of Odisha has dissolved the state pharmacy council (OSPC) and barred all the present council members from attending the council meeting stating that they are no more members of the OSPC.

Further, the government has given the charge of the registrar of the council to Sunitha Rani Patra, a drug inspector at the office of the drug control directorate in Bhubaneswar.

According to sources, the government has taken the step to dissolve the pharmacy council on the basis of the recommendations submitted by the inquiry committee headed by the director of medical education and training (DMET), Government of Odisha.

Earlier, the state government had constituted a committee to enquire into the reported irregularities at the council, reasons for the pendency of registration certificates, improper management of the pharmacy council, and the intentional delay in the process of registration of applicants applied from different parts of the state, says the circular issued by the special secretary of the health and family welfare department.

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The health secretary’s circular clarifies that the government will soon nominate five members to the OSPC, out of which three members will be post-graduates in pharmacy education.

Three ex-officio members and one member from the state medical council will also be nominated.

The ex-officio members are the director of health services, the state drugs controller, and the government analyst from the Bhubaneswar DTL.

The members to be nominated are the principal of the Pharmacy Wing at the SCB Medical College at Cuttack, a chief pharmacist either from the VSS Institute of Medical Sciences and Research at Sambalpur or from MKCG Medical College at Berhampur or from the Capital Hospital at Bhubaneswar and one ADC or drug inspector who is having M Pharm degree in pharmacy. 

With these nine members, the registrar will soon constitute one state pharmacy council which will proceed for carrying out the process of electing five members from the registered pharmacists.

In the circular issued by the health secretary, it is stated that Sunitha Rani Patra has been given the charge of Registrar-cum-Secretary of the council and she has been declared as the Returning Officer to start the election process of the council at the earliest and it will be conducted through online mode(e-voting).

For the conduct of the election, the registrar is authorized to hire a firm for website creation and software through tenders.

A Special Audit by a team of assigned officers will audit the accounts up-to-date and find out the irregularities committed by the earlier council.

Based on the report of the Special Audit actions will be taken against the erring officials or members of the council involved in the financial irregularities, the circular says.

the new registrar-cum-secretary, Sunitha Rani Patra said the constitution of the nine-member council will take place before the end of this year and the process for conducting the election will start as early as possible.

The soon-to-be-formed council of ex-officio and nominated members will decide on matters related to website creation and software.

The council will immediately bring out the list of registered pharmacists with voting rights.

She said currently the number of registered pharmacists is 42,000, but several of them have not renewed their registrations. All processes will be completed in another six to eight months.

When asked about the council election, Rani Patra said the election will be through e-voting, but a lot of work has to be done before the process begins.

The council does not have a website of its own, so it has to be created first. Now the online work of the council is carried out through the website of the drugs control department, which needs to be separated soon.

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https://thehealthmaster.com/2022/11/15/govt-dissolves-odisha-state-pharmacy-council/