Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers Shri D V Sadananda Gowda has said that with a vision to provide quality medicines at an affordable rate for the common man especially the poor, Govt. has set a target to increase the number of Pradhanmantri Janaushadhi Kendras PMBJK to 10500 by the of March 2025. As on 15th September 2020, the number of stores has increased to 6606.

With this, all the districts in the country will have Janaushadhi Kendras. This will ensure easy reach of affordable medicine to the people in every nook and corner of the country.

In the month of March to June 2020, PMBJP had faced many challenges regarding the shortage of API and other raw material of pharmaceuticals, disturbance in the supply of medicines to Jan Aushadhi kendras from Central and Regional Warehouses due to non-availability of vehicles for transportation, etc. Keeping this in view, with the expansion plan establishment of an effective IT-enabled logistics and supply-chain system for ensuring real-time distribution of medicines at all outlets to avoid stock out situation is also being chalked out.

At present four warehouses of PMBJP (Janaushadhi) are functional at Gurugram, Chennai, Bengaluru & Guwahati. Further, it is planned to open two more warehouses in Western and Central India. In addition, the appointment of Distributors in States/UTs is also being envisioned to strengthen the supply chain system.

PMBJP, the Scheme has been approved with a budget of Rs. 490 crores for the period 2020-21 to 2024- 25.

Despite the COVID lockdown and testing times, Janaushadhi Kendras achieved an appreciable sales turnover of Rs. 146.59 crore in the first quarter of 2020-21 compared to Rs. 75.48 crore achieved in the first quarter of 2019-20. In the months of July to September 2020 (Till 15th September), the stores added a sales of Rs. 109.43 Cr. Now the total sales up to 15th September 2020 is Rs. 256.02 Cr.

PMBJP has drastically brought down the prices of quality medicines and making medicines available within the reach of a large section of the population, especially the poor.