Patna: Social activist Guddu Baba and his supporters sat on a daylong dharna at Gardanibagh on Monday to protest against the state drug control administration's move to renew licences of shops from which fake, sub-standard and expired drugs were found earlier.
Guddu has been fighting a long battle to bring changes in the health sector. He was the one who raised the issue of encroachment and life-saving machines lying defunct at the hospital by filing PILs in Patna High Court. On Monday he said renewal of licence of shops from where fake, sub-standard and expired drugs were found amounted to playing with the public's health. "I want to know which sanjeevani buti is being offered by the drug mafia to the drug control administration department that their licences are being renewed," Guddu said. "Shops such as Shree Hanuman Agency have got their licence renewed. It is quite shocking given that 100 vials of anti-snake venom and antibiotic injections meant for supply in state-run hospitals were seized from Shree Hanuman Agency on Govind Mitra Road and Mahalaxmi Traders on Ashok Rajpath during raids last year.
"Medicines with changed labels - which is one of the definitions of fake drug - were also found from these shops. An FIR was lodged and nine people arrested in this connection. Despite all this, licences of both these establishments were renewed last week. There are other retail and wholesale pharmaceutical shops from where fake and sub-standard drugs were found but their licences, too, have been renewed. There are shops which were sealed and are now operational. How did this happen? Because of a nexus between drug control administration officials and the drug mafia."
Guddu said raids in 2010 at Shree Hanuman Agency showed it was stocking up expired drugs and a case was lodged against it at the Pirbahore police station. "Again in June 2014, raids at three of its warehouses unearthed stocks of expired medicine meant for supply to government hospitals," Guddu said. He demanded that the names of pharmaceutical shops against which action was taken in 2005, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 under "Operation Drug Mafia" be brought to the limelight. "This will alert the public against purchasing drugs from such shops. The government should have done this long ago," he said. Guddu demanded a meeting to review the present status and licence of shops whose licences were earlier cancelled.
Pharmacovigilance activist Rajat Rajat, who joined the dharna, demanded creation of a separate directorate for drug control administration while another activist, Arvind Kumar Choudhary, demanded transfer of store in-charges and pharmacists of all state-run hospitals who had been working for over three years at a place. "The store in-charges are behind sale of medicines meant for government hospitals. Their regular transfer will keep this practice at bay," Choudhary said.
