Pharmacists in Hyderabad held a protest at Osmania University, claiming there were irregularities in the elections for the Telangana State Pharmacy Council. Akula Sanjay Reddy, a member of the council, accused the returning officer, D Harichandana, of committing irregularities and called for a thorough investigation into the office staff’s actions.
According to Reddy, a notification was initially published in the newspaper on August 31, 2023, stating that the vote count would begin on November 10, 2023. However, on November 7, 2023, it was announced that the count had been postponed to December 11, 2023, due to the elections. Reddy questioned the motive behind this delay and expressed concerns that votes could be tampered with during this time.
Reddy also pointed out that the pharmacy council elections took place after the State election code was implemented on August 31. He questioned why this decision was made and highlighted discrepancies in the vote count. While there were 53,000 total votes, only 29,594 votes were counted, leaving 23,406 votes unaccounted for.
The council president called on Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to conduct an immediate investigation and take legal action against AYUSH Director Dasari Harichandana. He accused her of jeopardizing the future and livelihoods of 53,000 pharmacists across the state.
Several pharmacy council members, including Teja Sivakumar, Kolipaka Balaraju, Madam Prabhakar, Kanneboina Srinivas, Kambhampati Srikanth, Y Satish Kumar, and others participated in the protest.
