PCI and AICTE start joint inspections in pharmacy colleges; first phase of evaluation work only for fresh approvals
Following a direction from the Supreme Court of India, the
regulators of pharmacy education in the country, the Pharmacy Council of India
(PCI) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have started
joint inspections in institutions of pharmaceutical sciences from March 11 this
year. The inspection procedure will continue up to April 25, sources informed.
“This is for the first time the two education regulating
bodies are conducting simultaneous inspections on the same day in same
institutions after pharmacy education was started in India. Previously, the two
teams were visiting on different dates, said Prof. Rituraj Bharadwaj, pharmacy
professor at Assam Down Town University in Guwahati.
Although the inspectors of both the agencies carry out
simultaneous inspections in the same institution on same day, they do their
survey and evaluation work separately on different parameters. Both the teams
are following different guidelines also, authorities from colleges informed.
Dr. Gopal Veni, a central committee member of the PCI from
Pondicherry and a member of the pharmacy education committee of the AICTE, informed
Pharmabiz that the association of pharmacy colleges in Tamil Nadu had
approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction for a joint inspection.
Consequently, the court directed the regulators to conduct their inspection
work jointly on any particular day. He said AICTE had earlier taken a decision
to conduct the inspection along with PCI from this academic year. PCI also
agreed with it.
The ongoing joint inspections are carried out only on new
applications for fresh approvals for starting new colleges. According to
information received from reliable sources, the PCI and AICTE received over 500
applications for starting new pharmacy colleges. The officials of the two
bodies will complete their assessment work before the 25th of this month.
Inspections in the colleges of Pharm D programme and those
colleges which are planning to increase their intake for different courses,
start new courses and new specialization, the controlling agencies will hold
simultaneous inspections in July and August. While the inspectors of PCI are
selected from the central committee office, the experts representing AICTE are
chosen by the regional offices of technical council.
Sharing information about inspection work, Dr. Gopal, who is
the principal of Government College of Pharmacy in Pondicherry, said along with
the inspection teams of PCI and AICTE, representatives from state government
are also participating in the inspection work. For starting a new college,
No-objection Certificate from respective state government is required and
Essentiality Certificate from the concerned health department is also needed.
For issuing these two certificates, each state government will send their
representatives along with the inspection team of the central statutory bodies.
He said two more new pharmacy colleges are coming in the
union territory of Pondicherry in the next academic year. Mahatma Gandhi
Medical College and Research Institute at Kadalur and Sri Venkateswara Medical
College Hospital at Ariyur are starting both diploma and degree courses in
pharmaceutical sciences from June 2019. Until last year, Pondicherry had only
one Pharmacy College which is under the government sector. He said, although
the institution is under the state government, the teachers are not getting the
seventh pay commission. Since the government is facing financial problems, the
pharmacy academicians are not getting their salary regularly.
Dr. Harmesh Kumar, chairman of the Gurukul Institute of
Pharmaceutical Sciences in Fathegarh Sahib in Punjab, said he is not aware of
the joint inspection as a team of AICTE inspectors visited their institution
two days ago for evaluation following their application for increase in the
intake of students. But he is expecting the PCI team to their institution
shortly.
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