New Delhi: Some pharmacy colleges are refusing to cooperate with government inspectors and even putting up “dummy principals and faculty” during digital inspections, alarming the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) into threatening these institutions with criminal proceedings.
After finding “different people with different names”, the regulator has directed its inspectors to check the veracity of faculty members and the principal, including their education qualification and experience, failing which action will be taken against the college as well as the inspector.
The penal action includes cancellation of registration, filing of a first-information report (FIR) and blacklisting for three years from teaching.
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This level of subterfuge is alarming, given India has more than 8,000 pharmacy colleges with over 91,000 faculty and more than 513,727 students. The council has more than 100,000 pharmacists on its registry.
As part of their digital inspection rounds, inspectors are supposed to verify the QR code for each faculty member and take photographs of them and the principal wearing the correct QR code-based smart card with similar clear background for all.
“The inspectors/institutions are not following the guidelines of the Council. Inspectors are not submitting the pictures of faculty with valid QR Code generated Smart Card from DIGI-PHARMed Portal,” stated a communication issued by the registrar-cum-secretary of the PCI to all the inspectors and pharmacy institutions.
The communication, seen by Mint, stated that “dummy principal and faculty” are being shown by institutions.
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“Inspectors are required to check the genuineness of faculty/principal including their education qualification, experience, salary etc. failing which action shall be initiated by the council against the institutions and the inspectors including FIR and blacklisting for 3 years from teaching. Further PCI will recommend to the State Pharmacy Council for cancellation of the registration,” it said.
“The inspections have been made totally virtual and been linked up through QR Code. The inspection guidelines are not being followed properly. During the inspection, the faculty and principal are not wearing QR code-based smart card. As a result, we are observing different people with different names, doing fraudulent practices. All the valid information is linked to the QR code-based smart card provided by the PCI and hence it is a transparent way to verify the records,” said an official familiar with the matter.
Queries sent to a health ministry spokesperson remained unanswered.
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