Police teams arrest TN based cough syrup pharma owner in Chennai
Chennai (PTI): Tamil Nadu-based Sresan Pharma owner has been arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police with the help of Chennai police in the wee hours of Thursday, in connection with the adulterated cough syrup case, a police official said.
Teams from the Madhya Pradesh police and Chennai cops launched a hunt to trace out and nab the pharma owner Ranganathan.
'Coldrif' cough syrup manufactured by his company is attributed to the deaths of children in multiple states.
A senior police official said he was detained following a midnight operation and taken to Sunguvarchatram police station for an inquiry.
According to the police official, the police teams have been searching for G Ranganathan since October 7 after the Madhya Pradesh police team arrived, and he was finally arrested at 1.30 am today. The police also seized some documents from his Kancheepuram factory.
After being produced in the court here for obtaining the transit remand, he would be taken to Chhindwara, he said.
On October 7, the Sriperumbudur Drug Control Inspector had issued a show-cause notice to the pharma company asking it to explain the discrepancies in the quality and labelling of the medicine. Officials from the TN Directorate of Drugs Control inspected the manufacturing facility and found that the medicines were allegedly stored in “unhygienic conditions” on the corridors, and they noticed certain risk of contamination, he said.
The Tamil Nadu government had sealed the factory after 20 children from Madhya Pradesh died after consuming the "contaminated" cough syrup allegedly made in the unit. The government banned the cough syrup 'Coldrif' in the state from October 1 and ordered the removal of stocks of the medicine from the market.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
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.
