Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Ram Vilas Paswan said on Monday that his ministry would cut the prices of life saving and other important drugs by bringing more drugs under the 'price monitoring system' and also check the manufacture and sale of spurious drugs.
He told reporters in Shimla that besides taking steps to cut the unduly high prices -- in some cases "20 to 35 times the cost of manufacture" -- charged by the wholesalers and dealers, it would be ensured that not a penny over and above the maximum retail price could be charged.
Paswan said vigilance in the department would be made more effective in order to check fake drugs and the relevant laws would be made more stringent.
He also said Hindustan Antibiotic Ltd, Pipri, would be revived and Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) would be allocated for this purpose.
Paswan reiterated his demand for reservation of jobs for scheduled castes and tribes in the private sector and said that after the privatisation of public undertakings it had become necessary that jobs were reserved for these sections in private sector.
He said there was nothing new in this demand; it was being raised since 1991-92 when P V Narsimha Rao was the prime minister and there had been no opposition from any government.
