Madhya Pradesh government procures 'substandard' drugs, alleges Digvijay Singh; writes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi

BHOPAL: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Madhya Pradesh on May 14, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh today alleged that the BJP-led state government was purchasing sub-standard or spurious drugs worth crores of rupees for distribution in hospitals.

"Ill-equipped and mismanaged hospitals, use of spurious and substandard drugs sans essential tests, leniency in tender conditions to favour the pet supplier companies, flagrant violation of WHO guidelines are some of the open wounds on the body of system," Singh claimed in a letter addressed to Modi, released to media here today.

The former MP chief minister alleged in the letter that there was a "nexus between the higher officials and supplier companies".

The MP government's Drug Policy, 2009, provides that quality inspection of drugs is to be done by the accredited laboratories with the assistance of a selected external agency, Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC) every year, but why TNMSC was chosen is a mystery, Singh said.

"For quality control of drugs the sample of each batch of medicine supplied by the firms has to be necessarily sent to the selected accredited lab within three days of receipts of medicine ... a matter has come to light where drugs were procured and were used sans the tests from 2010-11 to November 2013," the letter alleged.

The office of Principal Accountant General (General and Social Sector) found that drugs worth Rs 28.72 crore were used without getting them tested at accredited labs, Singh said.