AGARTALA, March 3 � The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to Tripura Government asking it to respond to the allegations made by Dr Ashok Sinha on the sale and distribution of spurious drugs.
In a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in the apex court, Dr Sinha, who is also the Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) spokesperson, had alleged the State Government had cleared a contract order to Vardhaman Pharmaceutical Company for supplying drugs by flouting all the standing orders and rules of the Health department.
Despite objection from the Deputy Drug Controller and Regional Drug Testing Laboratory at Guwahati over the quality of the drugs supplied by Vardhaman Pharmaceutical Company, the State Government did not cancel the order, he said in the PIL.
Dr Sinha, in his petition, further added the government had given the contract order despite the fact that the Pharmaceutical Company has no license to supply drugs. The Supreme Court admitted the plea of Dr Sinha and fixed Monday to hear the PIL.
Justice AK Patnaik of the apex court after hearing the case today issued notice to the State Government on the allegations made by Dr Sinha.
As part of a face-saving exercise, the State Government has filed a case against the Vardhaman Pharmaceutical Company at West Agartala police station for supplying spurious drugs.
�The FIR itself is faulty as it was filed by Director of Health Services Dr SR Debbarma though this kind of complaint should be filed by either the Drug Controller or Dy Drug Controller under the Drug and Cosmetics Act�, said Congress MLA Ratan Lal Nath.
The State Government came to know of the fact on March 22 last year. Despite knowing that the company was banned, the State Government had procured a large quantity of medicines worth crores of rupees from it in the past few years.
The Regional Drug Research Laboratory in Guwahati had detected 11 spurious drugs � three life-saving injections for children, one capsule and seven tablets, while testing the samples in August last year.
Denying the allegations, Health and Family Welfare Minister Tapan Chakraborty informed the Assembly that immediately after the report was submitted, the government had stopped procurement of the drugs.
