An initiative, similar to the government-run Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Kendras, to provide medicines at highly subsidised rates, has been launched from Chandigarh with an aim to spread it across the country. The first JanMed store was opened this week in a Sector 44-D booth by the recently formed Sarva Rithu Seva Foundation, inspired by the Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation.
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The store will provide all kinds of generic and other medicines, including cancer injections and heart stents, at discounts ranging from 15% to 80%. BPL families and other needy people will get these medicines absolutely free of cost.
Photos By : Life In Chandigarh
Declaring the launch of the initiative at a city hotel on Sunday, the two directors of the foundation, Dr Saajan Sharma, an entrepreneur from Patti in Punjab who has been associated with the Sai Seva organisation since childhood, and Arun Hooda, a youth leader, said besides the medical field, the foundation will also work pan India in the area of education and service, for which three separate wings have been formed.
The foundation has plans to open 50 JanMed stores across the country within a year and will also organise regular medical and blood donation camps.
In the field of education, the foundation has already tied up with Lovely Professional University to support the education and fee of two deserving students to the extent of Rs 12 lakh. Ten girls have also been identified in Chandigarh under ‘sukanya’ initiative to provide them financial support to the extent of Rs 3,000 each for their studies. The education wing will also help educational institutions in imparting human values-based education.
Among the services to be provided by the foundation are Free Food Canteens, the first of which in New Delhi will provide free healthy food once a month to at least 1,000 poor and hungry people. In rest of the 50 places where these canteens are to be opened, the free serving of healthy food will be done once a week. This wing will also help create suitable job opportunities for the physically challenged and the poor.
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Speaking to LifeInChandigarh.com Saajan said the JanMed stores in due course are going to install automatic dispensing machines for children’s diapers and women’s sanitary pads. These will not cost more than Rs 5 apiece. Off course, these will be provided free of cost to the poor and the needy. Wheelchairs and other medical aids will also be added as we go along, he added.
To start with the foundation plans to spend Rs 1.5 crore on its activities.
Addressing the gathering, ardent Sri Sathya Sai follower and Chandigarh BJP President Sanjay Tandon, while listing out various free of cost public services being provided by the Seva Organisation, especially in the field of education, health and human values, lauded the foundation’s initiative in making the affordable medicines concept more accessible by opening stores in the marketplaces. This will be of great help to the common man since the government facilities remain confined to the big hospitals in the city like PGI, GMCH-32 and GMSH-16.
Praheed Kaur, daughter of former Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and wife of former Punjab cabinet minister Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon, also graced the occasion.
LifeInChandigarh.com wishes Sarva Rithu Seva Foundation all the very best in its philanthropic endeavours!
