Raipur: There is no system in Chhattisgarh Pharmacy Council for the last 15 years, the council has been run by a Clerk and a computer operator. Therefore, if someone is to start medicine shops by bringing a fake certificate of studying pharmacy in the colleges of UP, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and getting registered as a pharmacist here, Is his certificate fake?
This is not being investigated. Even the school marksheet is not being verified whether it is passed from a recognized board or not? Therefore, fraudsters have got the pharmacist registered by submitting fake certificates. This disclosure has been made by the investigation team of expert doctors headed by the Joint Director in its report.
After the registration scam broke in 2022, the previous government had formed a committee to investigate the fraud. That committee checked the records of more than 3 thousand pharmacists who were recruited between 2018 and 2021. Based on that the report has been submitted to the Health Directorate. The report has not been made public but investigation has revealed that the investigating officers have made many shocking revelations. It has been said in the report that due to non-appointment of full-time registrar in the Pharmacy Council, the system has crashed.
Pharmacy Council made hundreds of pharmacists fake certificates without verification
Chhattisgarh Pharmacy Council came into existence after the formation of the new state in 2000. A full-time registrar has not been appointed here since 2009. During this period, those who were given the responsibility of Registrar of the Pharmacy Council had three-four different important responsibilities.
Because of this he was not able to devote time to the council. He even wrote several times that he should be relieved of the responsibility of the council, but he was not given charge to someone else. He could not sit for long. Taking advantage of this, some clerks and operators used to get them to sign the documents related to registration. Taking advantage of their trust, clerks and the operators did not ascertain the authenticity of any certificate.
The Council had to do this but it was not done
The Pharmacy Council had to take measures to prevent fraud. When a certificate of study from another state was submitted, a letter had to be written to that college asking whether the concerned student had studied or not. Registration was to be done only after the report came from there but this was not done in even a single case. Every certificate was blindly accepted as correct and registered.
A look at the scam
- The certificate of a fake board of Bilaspur which is not recognized by the Board of Secondary Education was also submitted.
- The letter was sent to 28 colleges of 8 states including Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Rajasthan, MP, Jharkhand, UP.
- All the colleges were asked by writing the names of the students – have they studied in your institution.
- The secret of the degree was also revealed by the letters that came from Vybin College of Jharkhand, Sun Rise University of Rajasthan, Satya Sai University of Sehore, OPJS University of Churu, Monad of Punjab and Sridhar University of Pilani.
Bhaskar had exposed, raids were conducted across the state
Bhaskar had exposed the fake certificate scam going on in the Pharmacy Council. Council members were investigating after a confidential complaint was made to the Pharmacy Council. The number of pharmacists who were registered during this period from 2018 to 2021. The documents of all of them were checked. During this, information was sought from the colleges of those states from where certificates of pharmacy studies were collected.
In the first batch itself, more than 100 certificates were sent from those colleges with the mention that they had not studied in their institution. After that, the registration of more than 150 pharmacists was cancelled. Police conducted raids across the state and arrested more than 50 people.
More than 30 thousand pharmacists, certificates of more than 5 thousand are doubtful. There are about
30 thousand pharmacists in the state. Of these, registration of more than 5 thousand are doubtful. In 2022, former members of the Pharmacy Council had demanded an investigation of the registrations of all those suspicious pharmacists. Pharmacists with dubious degrees had submitted certificates of education from far-flung states, hence the process of getting the details by writing letters to the respective colleges of all those states was getting delayed, hence the investigation did not proceed further.
Police raids across the state
After the pharmacy degree scam was exposed, the police conducted raids across the state and caught those who were registering, but no action was taken against the medical store operators who committed fraud in the name of internship. The operators of Vijay Medical Store of Rajnandgaon were also included in this. Apart from this, some medical stores of Durg and Bhilai were also under investigation.
Action will be taken against those who do so
The investigation report is being examined. Strict action will be taken against those who are responsible for registration using fake certificates.- Shyam Bihari Jaiswal, Health Minister.
