Soon You May Be Able To Buy Generic Medicines, LED Bulbs From Your Nearest Fuel Stations

The government is working on opening 'Jan Aushadhi' (generic medicines) stores at petrol pumps belonging to state-run fuel retailers across the country with a view to making cheap drugs accessible to masses, Union oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said

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"Oil marketing companies are bringing an ecosystem of non-fuel retail business at petrol pumps through tie-ups. The Jan Aushadhi stores under the department of pharmaceuticals in the chemicals & fertilizers ministry will also be opened at the outlets in the future," Pradhan said.

But, the shortage of qualified pharmacists has emerged as a problem. Under law, drug stores need to have qualified pharmacists. While most of the private drug stores list such pharmacists, they are seldom present.

EESL is a company promoted by state-run power utilities. It is spearheading the government's flagship 'Ujala' scheme to replace all incandescent and CFL bulbs in the country with LED lamps by 2019.

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Pradhan said the IT ministry's 'Common Service Centre' concept is also being explored to offer government services such as issuing PAN and E-Aadhaar cards, utility bill payments, banking solutions and Agri-services at the pumps.

Power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal said the MoU was an example of how the Narendra Modi government worked as a single unit.

Under the tie-up with IndianOil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum, EESL will leverage the network of their 55,000 petrol pumps, which have a daily footfall of 3.5 crore, to sell LED bulbs and other energy efficient appliances.