A total of 147 medicine samples collected from various Government hospitals across Madhya Pradesh in last two years were found to be of sub-standard quality, prompting the Opposition Congress to demand a CBI probe into their distribution.
While talking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, leader of Opposition in Madhya Pradesh Assembly Satyadev Katare sought a CBI probe into the distribution of sub-standard medicines.A total of 147 sub-standard medicines were being distributed in hospitals across the state and the same should be banned immediately,” he told. Katare said that a probe by the central agency would reveal who were responsible for distribution of the samples and why such drugs were supplied to hospitals. “Those behind it should be punished,” he added.
On Tuesday, State Health and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra had said that total of 3,255 samples were collected from July 1, 2012 to May 31, 2014 (from various hospitals), and their quality was examined by a State-level laboratory. Out of them, 147 samples were found sub-standard.Mishra had also said that samples of only two types of medicine were given under the state government's Free Medicine Distribution Scheme, which is just 0.5 per cent and is quite less than the national average of 3-5 per cent.
Refuting the allegations of the Congress leader, Mishra said that free medicine distribution scheme is run in the state in the name of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel and has been accepted as the best and ideal service by the Government of India. World Bank specialists also studied the scheme some time back and suggested other states to follow it. In today’s conditions over four lakh persons per day take advantage of this scheme.