Berhampur: Attendants of the indoor and outdoor patients bore the brunt after the Ganjam administration sealed three 24-hour medicine shops on the premises of MKCG Medical College and Hospital here over alleged irregularities in records on Wednesday night.

The three shops - Oracle Medicine Stores, Aum Sai Drugs, and Aum Sai Arogya Niketan - have been functioning on the hospital premises since 1986, 1993 and 2005 respectively. While the first two are located between the old indoor building and the outdoor ward, Aum Sai Arogya Niketan is situated near the entrance.

"The Berhampur tehsildar and the drug inspector, along with two police constables, raided Oracle at 6.30pm. They enquired about the pharmacy license, went through the purchase, bill and inspection books. Though we immediately complied it, they alleged irregularities and sealed the shop," said Shiva Shankar Sahani, an associate with Oracle.

In the midst of this chaos, the patients and their attendants suffered.

Abhayapur resident Ramkrishna Singhari accompanied his 74-year-old mother to the outdoor eye department. "The doctor prescribed some medicines, but those were not available in the Niramaya counter. I am facing a lot of trouble as I am alone and I can't leave my ailing mother," he said.

The son and brother-in-law of a retired teacher from Kandhamal district, admitted in the hospital's medicine ward for low blood pressure and diabetics, also bore the brunt with no medicine and insulin being available.

"This is a government conspiracy to shift 16 medicine shops from various government hospitals in Ganjam. We will fight against it," said All Odisha Inside Campus Medicine Shops' Association leader Santosh Subudhi.

MKCG authorities had served eviction notices to the three shops in 2011. "But we moved Orissa High Court against it and the case is still pending. The district administration's move is a vindictive attitude," Sahani alleged.

"If the authorities can allow people to open snacks and tea kiosks on campus, why can't it allow medicine shops? We pay land license fees to the superintendent and the drugs controller gives us the licence. We have never violated the terms and conditions of the land lease agreement and been depositing the prescribed amount fixed by the government every year," he said.

Berhampur MLA Ramesh Chandra Chhau Patnaik said a decision must be taken in public interest. "The first priority is the interest of the patients and their attendants. These three shops on the campus provided excellent service to the patients," said the BJD leader, who is also a physician. "I talked with the collector today (Thursday) and we must make alternative arrangements."

Hospital superintendent Charan Panda, however, said he was not authorised to comment on the issue. "I am only concerned with hospital management," he said.

Berhampur sub-collector Siddhartha Shankar Swain said it was a regular check conducted by the enforcement squad. "We took the step as these three shops violated the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The attendants of patients can now use the 24X7 medicine shop opposite the super speciality block," he said.