To provide medicines at cheaper rates to the patients, Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Mr. Balbir Singh Sidhu today suggested the union government not to look at the brand of the company, rather fix the price on the salt of the medicine to bring uniformity in prices of various companies on same-salt medicine.Addressing the gathering at Consumer Awareness Function organized by the Consumer Protection Forum SAS Nagar at Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Phase-I, the health minister said, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) under Chemical and Fertilizers Ministry, is a union government regulatory agency that controls the prices of pharmaceutical drugs in India, but authority has no control over pricing and the prices recommended by manufacturer or traders are arbitrarily imposed on the people. "The Punjab Government is working sincerely to persuade the union government to fix the value as per salt of medicine irrespective of the brand of pharmaceutical company", said the minister, adding that he had recently called upon the higher officers of the NPPA in this regard.Sharing his experience, he informed that after taking charge as Health Minister, his priority was to provide unadulterated food products to the people of state and with the help of food security wing, action against more than six traders for preparing spurious Ghee was taken.
Likewise, during tenure as Animal Husbandry Minister, he had also protected the rights of consumers and milk testing was the regular exercise of the department to ensure the supply of unadulterated milk.While appreciating the efforts of the Consumer Protection Forum for their endeavour, Mr. Sidhu emphasized that consumer awareness against adulterated food products and keep the environment pollution-free was the need of the hour to live the healthier life.District Consumer Complaint Redressal Forum EX-Judge Mrs. Madhu P. Singh said that New Consumer Protection Act 2019 is about strengthening consumer rights. She said that the new Act also imposed penalties against misleading advertisements. The Central Consumer Protection Authority may also prohibit the advertising company from advertising a product for one year. Secretary R.T.A. Mr. Sukhwinder Kumar, , In-charge Traffic Education Cell Mr. Janak Raj, Assistant Food Safety Officer Mr. Hardeep Singh, Mr. Sukhbir Singh and Joint Director Mr. Manohar Singh also shared their expertise.Mr. Harkesh Chand Sharma Machhli Kalan, Political Secretary to the Health Minister, Councilor Mr. Narayan Singh Sidhu, Mr. Kuljit Singh Bedi, Mr. B.B. Maini, and Mrs. Gurmeet Kaur, Consumer Protection Forum President Mr. P.S. Virdi, Patron Mr. J.S. Arora and other members of the forum were also present on this occasion.