Jan Aushadhi Kendra a business opportunity, service to poor: Mandaviya

Bengaluru: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday said opening a Jan Aushadhi Kendra (JAK) centre is a business opportunity as well as a means to serve poor people.

"By opening Jan Aushadhi Kendra you serve people. Also, we give a commission of 20 per cent. Apart from that we also provide an assistance of Rs 3 lakh," Mandaviya said during his lecture on the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) as part of the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' in Basavanagudi here. The assistance is provided because the profit margin compared to those pharmacies selling branded medicines is very less because the medicines sold at JAK are cheap, the minister explained.

"We give you assistance because there should not be a situation of shutting down the unit," the union minister said. Mandaviya claimed that the launch of PMJAY shows that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pro-poor, pro-farmer and industry-friendly government. "We are industry-friendly, but we are also pro-poor because supporting poor people is our priority. The JAK is a blessing for the poor and middle class," Mandaviya said. He added that the JAK is known in the country as 'Modi Ki Dawai Ki Dukaan' (Modi's medical shop).

Recalling an incident where the medical expenses of a heart patient came down from Rs 4,500 to Rs 800 per month, the Union Minister said the publicity of the JAK is a service to the mankind. "Doing charity is not the only way of serving people but helping them minimise expenditure is also a service," he noted. On the initiatives of his ministry as part of the platinum jubilee of India's independence, Mandaviya said the 'Jan Aushadhi Mitra' will deliver medicine kits to elderly people at their doorsteps.

In his address, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said JAK stands testimony to Modi's vision of supporting poorest of the poor. "We need to ask ourselves whether anyone in the last 70 years ever thought of cheap medicines to poor people," Bommai said. Bommai assured the Bengaluru South Lok Sabha member Tejasvi Surya that the state government will help in achieving his target of opening 100 JAKs in his constituency.