Probe started into claims of wrongdoings in Haryana state pharmacy council

HISAR: An inquiry has been started into allegations of wrongdoings in the Haryana State Pharmacy Council (HSPC), confirmed a state government official to TOI on Thursday. Haryana special secretary (health) Prabhjot Singh said he had started an investigation into the allegations this month.
The allegations had been levelled by HSPC registrar Raj Kumar Verma, in a letter he wrote to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on January 10, 2022.
In the letter, Verma claimed that Haryana Service Rights Commission had already expressed concern over the registrations in the council and that Rs 50,000-Rs 80,000 were being taken for registrations in the council. He also claimed that Rs 5 crore had been withdrawn from the council's account without any predetermined budget, which was against the Pharmacy Act.
The letter stated that the council president himself would sign the registration certificate, which was against the Pharmacy Act. He also wrote that he was not allowed to check official mails and posts.
Along with this, he claimed that from 2019 to 2020 (for about 18 months), the council did not register a single pharmacist and that select applicants were being registered after December 2020, even as many applications were pending since 2019. The Haryana Right to Service Commission, in its order of January 20, 2022, had also expressed displeasure over corrupt practices in the council, he wrote in the letter.
Verma claimed that there were irregularities in jobs too. He alleged that a woman employee was working in the office on the personal pay of the president and it was she who looked after sensitive matters. He claimed that the regular employee appointed in the council from November 2020, was instead pursuing a BEd course.
'Son's registration cancelled in vengeance'
KC Goyal, who was a member of the Haryana State Pharmacy Council, said HSPC registrar Rajkumar Verma and other members had complained to the chief minister. On March 1, 2019, a meeting of the executive of the council was called where Dinesh Adlakha was appointed the president and Sohan Lal Kansal was appointed the deputy president. However, according to rules, the election of the president and the vice-president can be done by the general assembly of the council only, he said.
Goyal also claimed that his son Devendra Goyal's pharmacy registration was cancelled on baseless grounds because he had opposed government-appointed former registrar Arun Parashar, who is the brother of an Ambala BJP leader, as his Class XII certificate was allegedly fake and the pharmacy diploma was from Karnataka. Parashar was later ousted from the post.