The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has issued a clarification on the moratorium related to opening of new pharmacy colleges in the country from 2020-21.
It was unanimously decided that moratorium on the opening of new pharmacy colleges for running diploma as well as degree course in pharmacy for a period of five years beginning from the academic year 2020-2021 will be subject to following conditions. The moratorium will not apply to the government institutions and to the institutions in North Eastern region, the PCI clarified.
Earlier in July this year, the Central Council Meeting (CCM) of the PCI had unanimously passed a resolution to impose moratorium on starting new pharmacy colleges for conducting D Pharm and B Pharm courses for a five-year period from the academic year 2020-2021. The moratorium will not apply to the States/Union Territories where the number of D.Pharm and B.Pharm institutions (both combined) is less than 50.
The institutions which had applied for opening D.Pharm and/or B.Pharm colleges for 20l9-20 academic session either to the PCI or to the AICTE and the proposal was rejected or not inspected due to some reason or the other will be allowed to apply for 2020-21 academic session and this relaxation is given only for one year i.e. for 2020-21 academic session only. Existing approved pharmacy institutions will be allowed to apply for increase in intake capacity as per PCI norms and/or to start additional pharmacy course(s), the PCI further clarified.
It further noted that availability of job opportunities already available to pharmacist workforce which is enough to meet the current pharmacist-to-population needs of the country as there are approximately 1,985 D.Pharm and 1,439 B.Pharm institutes in the country with an annual intake of more than 2.19 lakhs and that there is no shortage of qualified faculty.
