Fake antibiotic drugs, abortion-inducing medicines worth Rs 40 lakh seized in Gujarat
Ahmedabad (PTI): Fake antibiotic drugs and medicines used to induce abortion worth nearly Rs 40 lakh have been seized from two different locations in Gujarat's Sabarkantha district, an official said Friday. Two persons have been detained for questioning, he said.
Based on a tip-off, officials of the Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) raided a medical shop in the Girdharnagar area of Himmatnagar on Thursday and seized a large quantity of fake antibiotic drugs, said a release by FDCA Commissioner HG Koshia.
The seizure included fake antibiotic medicines, claiming to contain components like cefixime, azithromycin and bacillus, worth Rs 25 lakh, said Koshia. These actual antibiotics are used for the treatment of serious diseases.
The name of the manufacturer mentioned on the medicines was Meg Life Sciences, Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh'. When officials contacted Himachal Pradesh's drug controller, it was revealed that no such company exists.
When the shop owner Harsh Thakkar could not produce any sale or purchase bills for these medicines, it was established that these drugs were fake, said the release.
While four samples of seized medicines were sent to a Vadodara-based laboratory for analysis, Thakkar is being questioned to find out the source of these fake medicines, said officials.
Later during the day, the FDCA team raided a house near Himmatnagar town hall and seized abortifacient (abortion-inducing drugs), and other medicines worth Rs 12.74 lakh.
It was revealed that the owner of Swaminarayan Medical Agency, Dhaval Patel, had stored these medicines for illegal sale at his residence without acquiring any permission from the authorities.
FDCA said it will initiate court proceedings as per the law against Thakkar and Patel after receipt of the laboratory results. Both are now being questioned to find out from whom they used to acquire these medicines and to whom they were selling them, said the release.
The development comes days after authorities seized fake antibiotic drugs worth Rs 17.5 lakh in raids across various cities of Gujarat and detained four persons.
FDCA had said that some of these persons worked as medical representatives of "benami" companies and used to deliver fake medicines to doctors.
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ASHA workers threaten indefinite strike from Feb 27 over rationalisation order, pending demands
Bengaluru: ASHA workers in Karnataka have warned of launching an indefinite strike from February 27, protesting a health department order to rationalise the workforce and alleging that long-pending demands have not been addressed.
The Karnataka State Joint ASHA Workers’ Association criticised the department’s decision to increase the population assigned to each ASHA worker, arguing that it violates existing norms and would lead to large-scale job losses. According to current norms, one ASHA worker is assigned for every 1,000 individuals. Under the current rationalisation plan, the allotted population in rural regions has been increased to up to 2,000, while in metropolitan areas with populations more than 50,000, the number has been raised from 1,000 to a minimum of 2,500 and a maximum of 3,000.
Deccan Herald quoted D Nagalakshmi, state secretary of the ASHA Union affiliated to AITUC, as saying the department had conveyed that an honorarium of ₹10,000 could not be ensured unless the population coverage per worker was increased. She alleged that workers were effectively being asked to accept higher workloads while excess ASHAs would be removed. “This would render nearly 7,000 to 8,000 ASHA workers jobless, and such a move is being carried out only in Karnataka,” she said.
At present, the state government pays ASHA workers a monthly honorarium of ₹5,000, while the Centre provides performance-based incentives. Workers said accessing these incentives has become difficult as data must be entered on the ASHA portal by primary health community officers, but vacancies in these posts have not been filled.
The workers have also submitted a set of pre-Budget demands, seeking an increase in the combined state and central incentives to ₹15,000 and enhancement of the state honorarium to ₹ 8,000, in line with promises made in the Congress election manifesto. Other demands include a lump-sum retirement benefit on the lines of West Bengal, creation of a corpus fund to meet treatment expenses of ASHA workers suffering from serious illnesses with reimbursement provisions, and payment of a fixed monthly honorarium for up to three months during recovery from severe illness.
ASHA workers had staged an indefinite protest in January over similar issues. On the fourth day of the agitation, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah intervened and assured the workers that their demands would be met.
