Protest against spurious medicines; another stir at JP Hospital today
Protesting distribution of spurious medicine in the State, Congressmen staged protest at Secretariat and gheraoed the office of health commissioner here on Tuesday. A similar protest will be held at JP Hospital on Wednesday.
Congressmen gathered in huge number in the morning and when the police intervened a seven member delegation went to meet Health Commissioner Pankaj Agrawal but the situation worsened after Agrawal was not able to provide satisfactory answers to the delegation and the Congressmen staged protest at the office.
Demanding action in the matter vice president of district Congress Bhopal Monu Saxena handed over a memorandum to Health Commissioner Pankaj Agrawal during the protest.
The protest was pacified after Health Commissioner Agrawal assured that appropriate action would be taken.
Saxena told that facts provided by Health Commissioner Agrawal were not correct as the matter was not of the year 2011 but the matter if from the year 2010 till the year 2013 and alleged that health commissioner was serious regarding the issue which shows that he under immense pressure of government and health minister.
In the process of procurement high commission plays a crucial role due to which spurious medicines are purchased. The matter came into fore after Madhya Pradesh CAG submitted a report in which 17 medicines were found non standard which were of purchased for Rs 10 lakh.
According to the report health department has distributed medicines purchased from Tamilnadu Medical Supply Corporation (TMNC) without testing. These medicines were worth Rs 29 crore and medicines of around Rs 70 lakh were found non standard during testing which was distributed.
Notably after the medicines failed in the tests they were not replaced and neither the refund was demanded. Heavy deployment of police force was arranged which faced difficulty in managing huge number of Congressmen protesting at the secretariat. Until a high level committee to enquire the whole matter is not formed Congress would continue to protest.