Chennai, Nov 20 | Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition K. Palaniswami on Saturday urged the DMK government to continue with Amma Pharmacy outlets which sell medicines at subsidized rates.
AIADMK joint coordinator Palaniswami also expressed surprise as to what “the two expert committees set up by the DMK government are doing to take a look at ways to improve the state’s economy and raise additional funds”.
Citing reports about “Stalin’s government’s plans” to shut down Amma pharmacy outlets, Palaniswami said the government should abandon its proposed move so that private outlets could get huge profits.
Refuting Palaniswami’s allegations, the government said the number of Amma pharmacies has increased from 126 to 131 after the new government came to power.
The government said that the cooperative department is running 305 pharmaceutical outlets, out of which 131 are Amma Pharmacy and rest 174 are cooperative medical stores.
The government said Chief Minister MK Stalin himself had made the budget announcement that in five years additional 300 pharmacy outlets would be opened across the state at the rate of 60 per annum.
According to the government, action is being taken to start 75 new pharmacies in the current year against the target of 60.
131 Amma pharmacies have sold medicines worth Rs 44.88 crore in the current financial year (till 31.10.2021).
Similarly, all 174 cooperative medical shops have sold medicines worth Rs 48.21 crore.
Overall, all the 305 co-operative pharmacies have done a business of Rs 93.09 crore.
In addition, steps are being taken by the Department of Cooperation for centralized procurement by which it has been decided to further increase the sales besides benefiting thousands of poor people.
According to Palaniswami, the DMK government is taking public welfare measures of the previous AIADMK government like shutting down Amma canteens, selling food at subsidized rates, Amma mineral water (a 1 liter bottle sold for Rs 10), Amma cement and others.
He said the DMK government stopped the sale of Amma cement at a price of around Rs 190 – 216 per bag and launched the Valimai brand at around Rs 350 per bag.
Source: IANS