Chennai: Cooperative Community Registrar A Shanmugasundam on Saturday denied the accusation of the Tamil Nadu government had closed the AMMA pharmacy.
He said the state had taken steps to start 75 new pharmacies in this fiscal by opposing 60 targets The department runs 305 pharmaceutical outlets, where 131 is AMMA pharmacy and the rest is a cooperative medical store.
“The state government, after assuming costs, has not closed one of the Amma pharmacies.
This increases the number of Amma pharmacies from 126 to 131,” the officer said.
Amma pharmacies sell RS 44.88 Crore the value of drugs in this fiscal, while the RS 48.21 crore cooperative shop.
The Registrar said that the Chief Minister M K Stalin had made a budget announcement to prepare 300 cooperative-managed pharmacies in the state.
Efforts have been taken for centralized procurement to increase sales and benefit the poor, he said.