FMRAI NEWS

FMRAI NEWS
1 JULY 2011
Rs.3
Vol. X No. 12 KOLKATA
Organ of Federation of Medical And Sales Representatives’ Associations of India
60-A Charu Avenue • Kolkata-700 033 • Phone : (033)24242862 • Fax : (033)24244943 • www.fmrai.org • E-mail : fmrainews@gmail.com, fmrainews@indiatimes.com
Demands Day
Medicines for People
O
n 14 June, in at least 181 cities and towns in 22 states and union
territories across India; thousands of FMRAI members brought out
rallies, held public meetings and distributed handbills, organized
conventions, staged dharnas and demonstrations and submitted memoranda to
the state governments and to the governors for central government. It was a
curtain raiser programme of FMRAI’s movement on medicines for people to be
concluded in massive solidarity day programme on 17 August which is also the
countrywide strike day of more than a lakh of sales promotion employees of
organized sector pharma companies generally known as medical representatives.
Leaders and members of the organizations of medical practitioners, trade unions and
others mass organizations also joined FMRAI’s programmes in Nagaland, Meghalaya,
Assam, Manipur, Tripura, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Puduchery and
Kerala on FMRAI’s 5-point demands on medicines for people.
Tezpur
Erode
Delhi
MEs, under franchisees, on 24
June. In view of admission of
FMRAI’s charter of demands in
conciliation at Mumbai on 14
June; FMRAI deleted this demand
vide their letter of 20 June from
strike notice of 7 June.
As per available reports, out
of total 1545 field workers of all
designations and of all divisions
in the company, 1065 participated
in the strike. Day long dharna and
gate meetings were held before
company’s establishments at
Guwahati, Kolkata, Ranchi,
Patna,
Lucknow,
Delhi,
Chandigarh, Jaipur, Indore,
Raipur,
Pune,
Nagpur,
Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi and
Bengaluru
Bengaluru. Despite heavy rains
large number of local council
subcommittee members and
leaders joined the striking
workers. Women field workers
also attended dharna in different
states.
In north east, field workers of
Manipur, Mizoram, Aizwal,
Meghalaya and Tripura also
participated in strike. In Gujarat,
dharna was not staged. However,
USV field workers in their
respective towns went to the
distributors place and recorded
par ticipation in strike. Uttar
Pradesh Chemists and Druggists
Association supported the strike
and demands by issuing
MPMSRU’s secretary Santosh
Soni explained the 5 point
demands of FMRAI. Seminar
supported the demands.
In Orissa, street corner
meetings were joined by leaders
of CITU and other fraternal
unions. At Rourkela, OSRU
delegation met housing and
urban development minister
Sarada Nayak. Delegations
submitted
memoranda
to
governor of Bihar at Patna and
governor of Jharkhand at Ranchi.
In West Bengal, conventions were
held and rallies were brought out
at Murshidabad, Durgapur,
Birbhum, North and South 24
Parganas, Hooghly, Midnapur
(West). Delegation submitted
memorandum to the governor of
West Bengal. Rallies were
brought out at Guwahati, Tezpur,
and Jorhat.
In Uttar Pradesh and
Uttarakhand, more than two
See page-4
Akola
Strike in USV
P
rotesting
against
victimizations by transfers
and terminations on
alleged ground of poor sales;
violation of terms of settlement
with regard to payment of annual
increment and daily allowances;
illegal deduction from expense
statement; illegal change in the
service condition without giving
notice under section 9A; and for
regularization of jobs of franchise
field workers under Contract
Labour (Regulation & Abolition)
Act; holding grievance committee
meetings; compliance of SPE Act
including revised Letter of
Appointment in Form A, leave and
service books etc; initial reports
indicate 70 percent country-wide
strike by all sales promotion
employees of USV Ltd including
the PSRs, BEs, Senior BEs and
In Kolkata, a drug convention
was held at Yuva Kendra presided
over by WBMSRU’s president
Robin Deb. Dr. Amit Sengupta of
AIPSN was the main speaker.
Others, who spoke in the
convention, include Dr. Gopal Das
and Dr. Amitava Bhattacharya of
IMA; Dr. Biswarup Sukul of
Association of Health Service
Doctors; Samir Bhattacharya of
12 July Committee, FMRAI
general secretary D. P. Dubey and
WBMSRU’s general secretary
Sumahan Chakraborty. At Durg in
Chhattisgarh, a seminar on Drugs
for People was attended and
addressed by IMA secretaries of
Durg and Bhilai Dr.Anil Agrawal
and Dr. P.K.Banerjee; senior IMA
leaders Dr. R.S.Naik, Dr. Ajay
Govardhan, Dr.Sharad Patankar,
Dr.Kaushlendra Thakur, Dr.(Mrs)
Archana Chowhan; president of
press club Ajay Behra; trade
union leaders of postal and
insurance employees and others.
statement. FMRAI’s secretary R.
P. Singh, UPMSRA’s general
secretary Rakesh Pandey, joint
general secretary Subodh
Awasthy, USV’s zonal convener
Aswini Bajaj and joint zonal
convener
Hemant
Singh
addressed the participants. In
Delhi, dharna was organized
before zonal office. CITU’s Delhi
state secretary Virendra Gaur,
DSMRO’s president N. P. Saini,
general secretary T. K. Mitra expresident A. S. Chadha, state
committee member Vijay Singh
and USV’s joint convener Seema
Bajaj addressed the gate meeting.
At Chandigarh, dharna was
addressed by state general
Lucknow
secretary
Shiv
Awasthy,
Chandigarh unit president
Sandeep Sharma and conveners
Hemant and J. S. Rajput. (photo).
State-wise total field workers
/ strike participants are: West
Bengal – 108/70, BiharJharkhand – 66/63, N.E.Region –
48/46, Orissa – 50/49 (1 on
leave),
Uttar
PradeshUttarakhand – 131/111, Delhi –
65/34, Punjab-Chandigarh – 99/
24, Rajasthan – 45/45, Madhya
Pradesh-Chhattisgarh – 78/76,
Maharashtra – 270/103, Gujarat
– 92/71, Andhra Pradesh – 128/
128, Tamilnadu – 163/123 (3 on
leave), Kerala – 90/75, Karnataka
– 112/28 (15 on leave); East Zone
(Zone I) – 272/229; North Zone
(Zone II) – 340/214; West Zone
(Zone III) – 440/250 and South
Zone (Zone IV) – 493/372.n
Chandigarh
FMRAI NEWS
JULY 2011
Editorial
FMRAI NEWS
l July 2011 l
Government’s
responsibility in supply
and control of medicines
I
n this issue of FMRAI News, lead stories are on
agitation and developments in respect of 5 point
medicine related demands of FMRAI. Pharmaceuticals
can not be marketed directly to the consumers.
Therefore, drug MNCs, followed by Indian companies,
require a large number of unorganized sales force who
are completely under their command and who can be
used for their unfair practices to exploit the people for
quick profit. Exploitation of the people and exploitation
of sales promotion employees are inter-related.
Therefore, fight against pharma corporate
corruption and fight against field workers exploitation
are also inter-dependent. Pharma companies have to
rely on personalized marketing among highly qualified
professionals, the medical practitioners. This
dependence is also the weakness of pharma
companies. Medicine is such a commodity which has
to be regulated and controlled because of its very
nature. It protects the life and health. Its unregulated
use is also dangerous for safety of life and health.
It is in this background FMRAI’s medicine related 5
demands are urgent and important for the people and
for the field workers themselves. Government
ultimately published list of essential medicines. But,
what for, there is no answer to that. Unless you link it
with availability and within reach of common man, the
list remains only for its academic value. Why the drug
companies should not be compelled for compulsory
manufacturing of essential medicines of at least 25%
of its total sales turn over? Government is trying to
sell prime lands of pharma PSUs. Manmohan Singh
government professes for Aam Admi. It is supposed to
be a welfare state. Why central government should not
manufacture bulk essential drugs in these PSUs? Why
the central government should charge excise duty on
life saving and essential medicines? Cost-based excise
duty was converted as MRP-based, thereby, 8% excise
duty remains only notional. With higher MRP, the excise
duties also go up. FMRAI demanded complete tax relief
on all essential medicines including excise duty and
vat.
The other question is price control of essential
drugs. Since first DPCO, the mark up on cost for
essential medicines remained at 100%. Where is the
need of reviewing this structure of pricing. Why all
essential drugs should not be brought in this pricing
structure?
With world economic crisis being further
accentuated leading to sovereign indebtedness in
several countries of Europe; serious cut in social
securities including health care system; contraction
of market in general and pharma market in particular;
big drug MNCs started their journey to so called
emerging economies with destination India being most
attractive because of neo-liberal policy of the
government and weak regulatory mechanism. This
column published that estimated Rs.48,000 crs of FDI
has come in pharma industry during 2007 – 2010
through acquisition route alone. Added to that is FDI
in outsourced drug trials in India to the tune $1.5 to $ 2
billions in 2010 alone (TOI, 20 June, 2011). Exposure of
such outsourced drug trials in clandestine manner in
Andhra Pradesh has recently come to light. There is
complete absence of regulatory mechanism for such
clinical trials. In this context, strict regulatory
mechanism and defence of self reliance of India in drug
production has become important. India’s healthcare
is not safe in the hands of drug MNCs. Government
has primary role of drug production and control of
safety of life and health of the people of the country.n
2
LEGAL NOTES
Union can defend chargesheeted
employee in domestic enquiry
In the Complaint (ULP) No. 83 of
2011 under MRTU & PULP Act, filed
by FMRAI and Abhijit Krishna Ghosh,
the field worker of Alkem Laboratories
Ltd based at Kolkata; the 7th Labour
Court at Mumbai, presided over by
justice V. P. Avhad, passed interim
order on 11 May, 2011 as
“Respondents are directed to
permit complaint No.2 i.e.
chargesheeted employee to be
represented
by
union
representative in domestic enquiry.”
Advocate R.D. Bhat represented the
complainants.
Abhijit Krishna Ghosh, a sales
promotion employee, designated as
‘Marketing Executive’, was charge-
From page-4
sheeted by the company and
domestic enquiry was held on
23.3.2011 at Mumbai. The enquiry
officer refused to allow him to be
defended by the union on the ground
that ‘service rules’ of the company
only allows a co-marketing-executive
as a defender. Against this ruling of
the enquiry officer, present complaint
was filed.
The court held (1) that, “The so
called rules relied by the respondents
are admittedly not certified standing
orders” and that, “the so called service
rules have no legal sanctity”; (2)
“When there are no certified standing
orders the Model Standing Orders will
apply;” (3) that, Model Standing
Orders “permits to the workman to be
defended by a co-workman working in
same department or by office bearer
of a trade union of which he is
member.” and (4) that, in case of Abhijit
“when there are no certified standing
orders the complainant i.e.
chargesheeted employee is to be
permitted to be defended by union
representative or co-workman as per
his choice.”
Ultimately, by letter dated 20 June,
the management of Alkem informed
Abhijit that the next date of enquiry was
fixed on 30 August and that they “would
abide by the Hon’ble Labour Court’s
Order dated 11th May, 2011” i.e. Abhijit
may be represented by FMRAI.
Of 5 Demands on Medicines
made, people do not get any relief
from overcharging of medicine prices.
The recovered amount goes to
government’s coffer.
Pharma companies are well
known of bribing for prescription and
trade. As parliamentary committee,
Hathi Committee pointed out in their
report decades back that, unlike other
commodities, medicine is such a
commodity where one who purchases
has no choice and one who decides
does not spend. This exclusive
commodity-market character opens
up flood gate of unfair marketing
through bribing route. FMRAI News
carried on several such news items.
Therefore, there has to be strict
regulatory mechanism and control
which India failed so far despite central
and state drug control establishments.
33rd World Health Assembly of
WHO in May 1986 adopted resolution
no. WHA 39.27 ‘on ethical marketing
criteria for medicinal drug promotion’
and asked governments, “These
criteria constitute general principles
for ethical standards which could be
adapted by governments to national
circumstances as appropriate to their
political, economic, cultural, social,
educational, scientific and technical
situation, laws and regulations,
disease profile, therapeutic traditions
and the level of development of their
health system.”
There was no response from the
Government of India to this WHO
resolution and left the matter entirely
on the drug industry. Exposure in
media of massive pharma corporate
corruption in marketing and trade,
OPPI, the association of mainly
multinational drug companies, and
IDMA, mainly representing Indian
sector’s interests, for public
consumption, came out with
‘voluntary code of ethical marketing
practices’ which their member
companies choose to ignore.
Ultimately Medical Council of
India (MCI) stepped in and issued
notification No. MCI – 211 (1) / 2009
(Ethics) / 55667 on 10 December,
2009 under section 33 of the Indian
Medical Council Act, 1956 amending
“Indian Medical Council (Professional
Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics)
Regulations”, 2002 with strict
guidelines for medical practitioners.
This regulation raises accusing finger
to medical practitioners and not to the
main culprits, the bribe giver pharma
companies.
Now there is strict regulation and
punitive provisions for the medical
practitioners, but still there is no law
or regulation against unfair marketing
by pharma companies bribing their
way for prescription. “Today (sales)
promotion turned out to be large cash
payments, expensive gifts and
sponsoring of pleasure trips to the
doctors,” writes Pharmabiz. Neo-liberal
policy is restraining the government to
act.
Facing criticism, the department of
pharmaceuticals of the central
government issued a lopsided
voluntary ‘Uniform Code of
Pharmaceuticals Marketing Practices
(UCPMP)’ in June, 2011. Yet, there is
no proposal for regulation or law to
prevent bribing by drug companies. n
FMRAI’s 5-Point Demands on Medicines
1. Prevent multinational companies’ take over of Indian companies;
2. Revive public sector drug units including vaccine producing plants and defend Indian sector companies;
3. Bring all items in the National List of Essential Medicines under cost-based price control as applicable
to the ‘List of Essential Drugs’ under DPCO 1995 ensuring their availability through compulsory
manufacturing and through PSUs; and stop banning of well established products of Indian companies
without substantial ground and protect jobs of workers;
4. Cap on all drug prices; minimum MRP on all essential drugs; no excise duties on essential drugs;
minimum excise duties on other medicines and revert to cost based system; and
5. Stop unethical trade and marketing practices by drug companies and take effective steps against fake
drugs.
CONDOLENCE
Comrade Pinaki Nandy
Comrade Pinaky Nandy (42), Win
Medicare field worker at Jorhat in
Assam, died of road accident leaving
behind his wife, an infant son, ailing mother, two
brothers and sisters. He was elected twice as state
convener of West Bengal council and was recently
transferred to Assam. FMRAI mourns the untimely
death of Comrade Pinaky Nandy and sends heartfelt
condolence to his bereaved family members.
Comrade Dilip Bhattacharjee
Comrade Dilip Bhattacharjee (64), former member of
WBMSRU, passed away on 1 June following a prolong
illness. He left behind his wife and a daughter.
Comrade Dilip Bhjattacharjee was son of late Comrade
Panchanan Bhattacharjee, one of the founder members of
WBMSRU and elder brother of BSSR Union’s general
secretary Deepak Bhattacharjee. FMRAI mourns the death
of Comrade Dilip Bhattacharjee and sends heartfelt
condolence to his bereaved family members.
FMRAI NEWS
For Violation of SPE Act
10 Companies Prosecuted
D
uring last two years, on complaints of FMRAI,
prosecution cases have been filed personally
against top executives of 10 companies by the state
governments of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka and Uttarakhand for violation of Sales
Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act,
1976 and its Rules specifically for not giving
appointment letters in Form A, and for not
maintaining register of sales promotion employees in
Form B, service books in Form C, register of service
books in Form D and leave account in Form E.
In Maharashtra, cases have been filed before
the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate
at Andheri, court no. 22 against (1) Fulford (India)
Limited (case no. 70/SL/2009) and personally
against Samir Tamhane, Director HR; (2) against
Aventis Pharma Limited (case no. 01/SL/2011) and
personally against Shailesh Ayyenger, Managing
Director, Pradeep Vaishanav, Sr. Director HR, and
S. Ghogey, Director; (3) against Solvay Pharma India
Limited (case no. 02/SL/2011) and personally
against Nitin Gadgil, Managing Director, M. S.
Garewal, Director, D. G. Rajan, Director and S. N.
Talwar, Director; and before the court of Metropolitan
Magistrate at Bhoiwada at Dadar, court no.5, (4)
against RPG Life Sciences (case no. 1392/55/10)
and personally against Ajit Singh Chauhan,
Managing Director; and (5) Merck (India) Limited
(case no. 354/SL/2010) and personally against
Merck Diziki, Managing Director and K. Shivkumar,
Director.
In Andhra Pradesh, cases have been filed before
the court of XII Additional Metropolitan Magistrate,
Nampally, Hyderabad against (6) Biological E (STC
no. 1042/2010) and personally against G. V. Rao,
“occupier of Biological E Ltd’; against (7) Genx
Pharma (STC no. 16/2011) and personally against
P. K. Hiradhar, CEO and G.V. Shesha Reddy, general
manager finance; against (8) Vanguard Therapeutics
(STC no. 17/2011) and personally against P.
Koteshwar Rao, CMD, and against (9) Zydus Cadila
(STC no. 818/10) and personally against Pankaj B.
Patel. CMD.
In Karnataka, cases have been filed before the
Metropolitan Magistrate, Traffic Court–VI, Bangalore,
against (10-I) AstraZeneca Pharma India Ltd (CR/
10/2011-12) and personally against D. E. Udwadia,
chairman, K. S. Shah, Director, Ian M. D. Brimicombi,
Director, Luigi Filais La Corte, Director, Anandh
Balasundharam, Director and Manoj Singalchar, Sr.
HR.
In Uttarakhand, cases have been filed before the
court of Chief Judicial Magistrate at Dehradun
against (10-II) AstraZeneca Pharma India Ltd (case
no. 1199/11) and personally against Anandh
Balasundharam, Director.n
FIR to file against extortion
of resignations for Pfizer
F
MRAI’s charters of demands
to both Wyeth and Pfizer were
admitted in conciliation and are
now in the process of reference
to tribunal by the government of
Maharashtra. Desperate Pfizer
management is trying to extract
letters of resignations from WLL
field workers offering contract
service in Pfizer. From Piramal
Healthcare to Abbott Healthcare
it was job transfer, as is where
basis, under the provisions of I.
D. Act. From WLL to Pfizer it is
through resignation.
Management’s attempt of
extor tion of resignation is
punishable offence under section
384 and 385 of Cr.PC. FMRAI has
asked its units to file FIR in
nearest police station against the
culprit managers, who are
attempting
extor tion
of
Torrent field
workers in
A.P. abstained
en masse
P
rotesting
against
harassments, victimizations,
coercion and threats of leading
functionaries by the management;
notified by APMSRU, Torrent field
workers of Andhra Pradesh en
masse abstained on 20 June. The
field
workers
responded
magnificently braving the threats
of the management. Out of total
175 field workers in the state, 126
Torrent field workers of Andhra
Pradesh abstained from work on
leave en masse.n
Yogesh Kumar’s
victimization issue
in tribunal
Yogesh Kumar had been
working for Pfizer since June,
2006. Without any charge-sheet
and domestic enquiry, without
following the rules of natural
justice the company terminated
his service on 28 January, 2011.
RMSRU raised industrial
dispute which was admitted in
conciliation under 12(2) of I.D
Act. Management did not
appear in the conciliation. The
conciliation officer submitted
failure report on 11 April, 2011.
On 3 June 2011, Yogesh
Kumar’s dispute has been
referred to Industrial Tribunal at
Jaipur for adjudication.
resignations from Wyeth field
workers.
Those WLL field workers, who
were duped by Pfizer and
submitted resignation from many
years of jobs in Wyeth and
accepted contract service of
Pfizer; by now, are being forced
to leave job. Within a year’s time
at least 16 of them had to leave
Pfizer’s job. They include M.
Kumar, Hyderabad; Mir Ahmed,
Hyderabad;
Srinivas,
Vishakhapatnam; Chandrasekher,
Kurnool; Vijay Premnath, Trichy;
Ravi Shankar, Bangalore; R.
Satish, Chennai; Ganesh Batra,
Chennai; Prasant Tyagi, Delhi;
Satish Kaushal, Mumbai; Deepak
Sakula, Mumbai; Amarnath
Mishra, Goa; Amit Jain, Jaipur;
U.K.Bhat, Baroda; V. Sutar, Gujrat;
Rajat Saha, Kolkata.n
Settlement in Emcee
Pharmaceuticals
T
he second wage settlement between Emcee Pharmaceuticals,
West Bengal and WBMSRU was signed on 23 May covering 18
sales promotion employees of the company. The settlement was signed
under the provisions of Industrial Disputes Act for a period of three
years, effective from 1 October, 2010. The settlement shall derive a
minimum benefit of Rs.1952 and maximum of Rs.2748 with average of
Rs2289 per field worker per month.
There are two grades in the pay scales and grade promotion will
be automatic, on completion of 15 years in first grade. The first grade
starts from Rs.3500 and ends at Rs.5150 with annual increment ranging
from Rs.90 to Rs.130 and the grade II starts from Rs.5450 and ends at
Rs.8420 with increments ranging from Rs.140 to Rs.190. The basic
pay of all sales promotion employees have been fitted into the scale
as per their years of service from the date of their joining. The variable
dearness allowance shall be paid as per West Bengal government’s
notification whereas house rent allowance shall be @ 10% of basic
and VDA; LTA shall be Rs.900 upto 15 years of service and Rs.1500
beyond that. Daily allowances have also been revised.n
JULY 2011
In M.P. & Chhattisgarh
USV field workers’ two
strikes in a week
W
ithin four days after
successful all India strike,
USV field workers in Madhya
Pradesh and Chhattisgarh of all
designations and divisions,
including those working under the
franchise, had to resort to yet
another complete strike on 28
June. MPMSRU issued shor t
strike notice and all 76 striking
field workers in two states and one
From page-4
field worker, being seriously sick,
abstained from work in protest
against transfer of senior most
field worker Feroz Jafar, who is
also the president of Bhopal unit
of MPMSRU and joint convener
of USV council, termination of
service of Jabalpur based field
worker Avinash Kumar Mishra,
deduction of expenses and non
payment of LTA etc.n
... at Indore & Raipur
Indore, A gate meeting was held
addressed by CITU’s Madhya
Pradesh state general secretary
Pramod Pradhan, MPMSRU’s
president S. K. Talukder, joint
general secretary S. S. Tomar,
treasurer Anurag Saxena,
secretary Sandeep Chaturvedi
and Indore unit’s secretary
Manish Thakkar. A delegation, led
by Pramod Pradhan, met the
labour commissioner, submitted a
memorandum and had long
discussion who assured to look
into the demands and pursue the
same at the appropriate level.
Large number of members
from Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur,
Ambikapur and Raigarh joined
state level dharna of Chhattisgarh
at
Raipur
and
staged
demonstration. A public meeting
was addressed by MPMSRU
leaders. Led by CITU’s state
president Ajeet Lal and its
treasurer Maruty Dongre,
MPMSRU’s vice president N. P.
Shukla and secretary Santosh
Soni marched to labour
commissioner’s office, staged
demonstration and submitted
memorandum.n
AGB meeting of Jalandhar
155 members of Jalandhar
unit attended its annual general
body meeting on 19 May at Guru
Nanak Dev Library Hall. General
secretary Shiv Awasthy and other
leaders Wadhera from Moga,
Chander and H S Ranu from
Bathinda and
Sahni from
Jalandhar
addressed the
par ticipants. The meeting
unanimously elected R. Sahni as
president, Vineet Sharma as
secretary and Kanwardeep as
treasurer.n
Motor cycle rally at Alwar on 14 June
3
JULY 2011
FMRAI NEWS
Registration No. WBENG/2001/6430
STATE NEWS
From page-1
General Council Meeting of BSSRU
A
massive rally against diesel,
kerosene oil and LPG price
increase and raising slogans on
demands, preceded the general
council meeting of BSSR Union
at Dhanbad on 25-26 June. The
general council meeting was
inaugurated
by
CITU’s
secretary Dipankar Mukherjee,
for mer MP and ended with
concluding speech by CITU’s
vice president and CPI(M)’s
leader in Lok Sabha Basudev
Acharia, MP. Chairman of the
reception committee, CITU’s all
India vice president, its
Jharkhand state president and
wor king president of Coal
Workers Federation of India
S.K. Bakshi welcomed the
participants. Prabhulal, general
secretary of Dhanbad district
coordination committee of trade
unions, Hemant Mishra of
AIIEA, Debashish Baidya of
BEFI, former general secretary
J. S. Majumdar also addressed.
Dipankar Mukherjee
S.K. Bakshi
141 general council members
and 32 observers attended. The
Basudev Acharia
meeting resolved to achieve
10000 membership in current
year
and
also
adopted
resolutions in suppor t of 17
August all India strike, on
agitation and strike in pursuance
of state-related demands,
against price increase of
petroleum
products
and
demanding compensation by
30% increase in wages and
allowances, in solidarity with the
strike of bank employees, coal
and P&T workers.
The
general
council
constituted four commissions and
discussed the reports, placed
reports in planary sessions and
adopted the reports.n
thousand members joined programmes including forming human chain
in the centre of the city of Lucknow and near major hospitals.
Memorandum was submitted to the governor B.L. Joshi in delegation.
In Himachal Pradesh memoranda were submitted at Shimla, Solan,
Mandi,
Hamirpur,
Kangra
and
Dharmshala.
In
Rajasthan, delegation
met health secretary at
Jaipur and submitted
memorandum.
In
Tamilnadu,
15000 leaflets in Tamil
Kolkata
were distributed. A
massive rally of 450 strong, comprising of TNMSRA members, fraternal
trade unions and students of two nursing colleges were taken out at
Erode. Demonstrations were staged before collectorate at Vellore and
before central bus
stand at Coimbatore.
Dharnas were staged
at
Dindigul
and
Cuddalore. In Kerala, a
rally to the Rajbhawan
was taken out at
Thiruvanantapuram
and memorandum
was submitted to the
Governor.
Gate
Durg
meetings were held in front of the collectorates at Kollam and Calicut.
Conventions with fraternal unions were held at Ernakulam, Pallakad
and Thrissur forming Samara Sahaya Samithis. In Karnataka, at Mysore
demonstration was staged.n (Alwar photo on page 3)
Of 5 Demands on Medicines
5
n pursuance of state-related demands, MPMSRU
staged state level dharnas at Indore for Madhya
Pradesh and Raipur for Chhattisgarh on 13 June.
This was preceded by staging dharnas and
demonstrations by units and submitting memoranda
to district administration.
Members from 14 units of MPMSRU in Madhya
Pradesh staged day long dharna at Dawa Bazar,
See page-3
See page-2
A
MLA, Dr. K Nageshwar, MLC, CITU’s vice president
R. Laxmayya, RBI employees union’s secretary
Kranthi, All India Lawyers union’s vice president
Parthasarathy, TNMSRA’s secretary V. Vasudevan,
FMRAI and APMSRU leaders T. Kameswar Rao, I.
Raju Bhat and other secretariat members of
APMSRU addressed the dharna.n
State Dharnas at Indore & Raipur
I
At Raipur
... Medicines for People
-point demands of FMRAI on medicines for people are mainly in
three areas:
-For price control, complete removal of all taxes and to ensure
availability of all life saving and essential drugs by compulsory
manufacturing;
-Against pharma corporate corruption of ‘pay for prescription’ and
‘pay for trade by illegal discounts’ and
-For defence of self-reliant Indian pharma industry including PSUs.
In SLP Case No. 3668/2003, the Supreme Court directed the Union
Health Ministry to review and expand the ‘List of Essential Drugs’ (LED),
which is having only 74 drugs at present; submit the same in the Court
and bring those under price control. Drugs and their formulations in
the LED has maximum limit of 100% cost-based mark up since Drug
Price (Control) Order, 1979 (DPCO, 1979).
However, under influence of powerful multinational and national
drug lobby, the Government, under some unsustainable plea, submitted
in the Supreme Court a different list, the ‘National List of Essential
Medicines’ (NLEM). NLEM has since been revised in June, 2011 having
348 drugs and formulations. Unlike LED, NLEM is having no relevance
with price control. Joint committee of central government and drug
industry could not come to any common understanding on price control
of items in NLEM as the industry is asking for complete removal of
cost-based price control, voluntary fixation of prices and instead of
‘control’ only ‘monitoring’.
The NPPA (National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority) was set up
by the central government in August 1997 for making available
‘pharmaceutical products at reasonable prices.’ In 14 years of NPPA,
prices of medicines, including essential and life-saving drugs, have
gone out of the reach of common man. And now, the new chairman of
NPPA, G. Balachandran says that the NPPA “needed to maintain a
fine balance between the interests of consumers and producers”.
(Extracts from interview by Joseph Alexander, New Delhi, June
09, 2011).
He also said, “NPPA considers the cooperation of the
pharmaceutical industry as a pre-requisite condition.” Here is a sample
of cooperation of the industry Balachandran is seeking for. In April,
2011, after 20 years of legal wrangle, Supreme Court finally asked
GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals to pay Rs.71.21 crs to Drug Prices
Equalization Account (DPEA) of the central government for
overcharging Betamethasone group of skin ointments in violation of
DPCO, 1979. Out of total Rs.2328.52 crs outstanding in 786 such cases
till January 31, 2011, NPPA could recover just Rs.202 crs. Defaulting
pharma major companies are Cipla, Cadila, Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy’s Lab
and Pfizer. “By challenging drug price fixation orders in various courts,
the pharma companies have been just denying the very opportunity of
getting medicines at fair prices to the poor patients.”(From editorial,
Pharmabiz by P. A. Francis, April 19, 2011). Even if full recovery is
Meeting with A.P. Chief Minister on Demands
ndhra Pradesh being one of the six states for all
India OSG movement on enforcement of SPE
Act, and on state-related demands of the field
workers; APMSRU members, joined by leading OSG
members from Tamilnadu, staged a state level
dharna before the government secretariat at Indira
Park, Hyderabad on 13 June. A delegation, led by
CPI(M)’s leader in the Assembly Julakanti Ranga
Reddy and consisting of FMRAI’s secretary T.
Kameswar Rao, APMSRU’s joint general secretary
I. Raju Bhat and secretary A. Nageshwar Rao met
Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy
on 13 June, submitted memorandum containing
demands and explained the demands. The chief
minister assured to advise the labour department to
look into the demands favourably.
The dharna was presided over by APMSRU’s
president Mukund Kulkarni. Julakanti Ranga Reddy
Postal Registration No. KOL RMS/106/2010-2012
Printed by D P Dubey, published by D P Dubey on behalf of Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives’ Associations of India and printed at Satyajug
Employees Co-operative Industrial Society Ltd. 13 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Kolkata-700 072 and published at 60-A, Charu Avenue Kolkata-700 033
EDITOR : D P DUBEY