Drugs Scam: Kashmir Shuts Down, Normal Life Hit

DAK: Fake drugs may have caused hundreds of deaths last year

SRINAGAR – Life in Srinagar city and other parts of the Kashmir Valley was disrupted Monday by a shutdown against the spurious drugs scam unearthed recently here.

Business establishments, shops and private schools were closed. However the vehicular movement of public transport was witnessed on the inter-district roads.

The local city and peripheral hospitals witnessed a thin influx of patients. However, government offices were functioning normally as unwritten diktat from the administration had ensured the “full attendance”, an official said.

Meanwhile, taxis and other vehicles carrying passengers to various destinations of tourist interest like Sonamarg, Gulmarg, Pahalgam and other places plied normally throughout the Valley, as also the traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu highway.

The Medical Employees Joint Action Committee (MEJAC) – an amalgam of various doctors’ associations and pharmacists – had called for a strike in hospitals besides the general shutdown.

The shutdown coincided with arrival of Durbur (the opening of the civil secretariat) in summer capital, Srinagar. The seat of government shifts from Jammu as part of the biannual Durbar Move every summer.

MEJAC chairman Dr. Nissar-ul-Hassan said they wanted to send “a clear message to the government that things like these (sale of spurious drugs) is unacceptable.”

“It is the day when killers will land in Kashmir. We will observe it as a black day for brutal and barbaric people are coming back,” he said. “I appeal to shopkeepers, transporters, schools and colleges to observe a complete shutdown to protest against this scandal,” he had said earlier.

Lawyers of the Bar Association of Kashmir and the Kashmir Economic Alliance – a group of traders – had supported the shutdown call.

Outside the secretariat, protesters staged demonstrations and demanded action against the culprits involved in the scandal.

Legislator from Langate constituency in north Kashmir, Engineer Rashid said: “We are protesting against the drug scam, the genocide in Kashmir and the inefficiency of the state government. No action has been taken against the concerned ministers including Sham Lal Sharma and others. The officers are just blaming others.”

Lab tests found that an antibiotic tablet – Maximizen-625 – supposed to contain 500 mg of Amoxicillin had zero percent of it. These antibiotics, used to ‘cure’ bacterial infection, were supplied in tens of thousands to Kashmir hospitals including the Lal Ded maternity hospital.

Following this, reports emerged that many other spurious drugs were supplied in the valley hospitals.

The scandal has caused concern in the valley. Dr Hassan said the fake drugs may have caused hundreds of deaths in the valley last year.

Separatist leaders and civil society members have demanded that a criminal complaint be lodged against Sham Lal Sharma, the state’s former health minister during whose tenure the fake drugs were purchased.

Sharma has, however, denied involvement in the scam saying he had no role in purchasing the fake medicine.

The authorities have formed a high-level committee to probe into the scandal. Three people -owners of a Jammu-based company who supplied the counterfeit drugs- have already been arrested in this regard.

The state vigilance commission has also been asked to probe the assets of the members of the government-appointed purchase committee involved in the alleged scam.

Also a non-bailable warrant has been issued against fifteen people including owners of two Himachal and Maharashtra based companies. The drugs bore their brand name.

The state vigilance commission has also been asked to probe the assets of the members of the government-appointed purchase committee involved in the scam.

‘Serious Issue’, Says Centre

Terming the drug scam in Kashmir as a “serious issue”, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr. GN Singh said that there was “faulty procurement and testing system in place in the Jammu and Kashmir.”

“People involved in the scam won’t be spared,” he told reporters.

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