BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi listens to grievances of people at his janata durbar in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Sept. 23: The BJP would try to garner support of people on the alleged medicine scam through its mass contact programme “Bihar Bachao-Bihar Banao”, starting from September 25.

Senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said the party would raise the drug scam during its “Bihar Bachao-Bihar Banao” programme as it directly concerned the people. The party would also highlight the state government’s negligence and failure in purchasing medicines, Modi said on the sidelines of his weekly janata durbar.

The BJP’s “Bihar Bachao-Bihar Banao” programme would start from September 25, coinciding with the birth anniversary celebration of its founder member Deendayal Upadhyay. The mass contact programme would continue through the birth anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi (October 2) and Jayaprakash Narayan (October 15).

Besides anomalies in purchasing drugs and medical equipment, Modi said the medicine scam pertained to procuring substandard drugs and medicines whose expiry date had lapsed. He claimed that Arvind Sah, a resident of Belhar (Banka district), died at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bhagalpur on May 21 after he was administered substandard drug.

Modi said after his death, a two-member medical committee was constituted. Its report stated that Sah, who was admitted to the hospital for treatment of his ears, was administered extra dose of lignocaine and adrenaline injection.

“This particular injection was tested by Bihar Medical Services Infrastructure Corporation Limited (BMSICL) at ITL Labs in New Delhi. The quality control report provided by it on April 16, 2014 said the quantity of adrenaline in the injection was above the standard limit,” Modi said.

“Sah’s death could have been avoided had the government acted after getting the lab test report that the medicines supplied by black-listed firms were bad,” he said, demanding Rs 10 lakh as compensation for Sah's family.

The senior BJP leader wondered why BMSICL did not recall the drug immediately after getting the lab report, and kept supplying it to hospitals. He also quoted extensively from the government probe report into the death, which revealed that Sah did not have any disease apart from the affliction in his ear.

Modi pointed out that after a month of the death of Sah, the Bhagalpur medical college and hospital superintendent informed BMSICL and requested to get the drug recalled. The letter also said the injection was reacting on patients and the life of another patient could be saved only after much effort.