Maha chemists call off strike after court intervention

The chemists and druggist association in the state withdrew their strike this evening following court intervention.
"The decision came after a PIL filed in the High Court. The court asked the state administration to hold a meeting of the redressal committee headed by the chief secretary formed in July this year to resolve the issues raised by the association and report the outcome to the court," Maharashtra State Chemists and Druggists Association president J S Shinde told PTI.
The association had launched a three-day strike from today morning, but called it off by the evening after the court intervened in the matter.

On December 24, the court will review the out come of the redressal committee meeting, he added.
Chemists in the state had decided to observe a shut down from December 16 to 18 protesting against what they describe as "draconian" the interpretation of the Drug & Cosmetics Act, 1940 by the state FDA.
Around 50,000 chemists across the state and 60 per cent in the city downed their shutters today.

Chemists were against the FDA's new rule, under which patients would have to get new prescriptions every time they visit a chemist's shop to purchase regularly used medicines, even for those drugs to be taken for life-time diseases like asthma, blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis.

The FDA had asked chemists to sell medicines on prescriptions that fall under schedules prescribed by the Centre.
Patients would have to get prescription only from qualified allopathic doctors to get allopathic medicines, chemists claim.
Patients from slums and interior areas would suffer the most as there are hardly any allopathic doctors practising in these areas, the association had said.