Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Medical store owners continued to protest the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raids on Friday following the cough syrup deaths in Chhindwara.
The protest is over incompetent people being included in raid in teams and medical store owners being given only 24 hours to furnish details of sale records of cough syrups. There are 41,000 medical stores in Madhya Pradesh and 4,000 in Bhopal district.
General secretary of the All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) Rajiv Singhal said, “The medical store owners are not against any raid to seize the killer cough syrup in stock. They are protesting against incompetent people like ASHA workers and others sent to raid the medical stores. FDA, NHM, health department and the district administration are competent authorities but the issue is that an incompetent authority should not raid any medical store. Such raids give a wrong message in the market against medical stores. So, it is a matter of reputation for chemists.”
Bhopal Chemists Association (BCA) president Jitendra Dhakad said, “It is not possible for us to furnish all details of sale records within 24 hours. So, we protested against such an attitude of the FDA team. In some districts, collectors have agreed to give three to four days to show the records of cough syrup sales for a couple of years. In Bhopal district, there are 3500-4000 medical stores and 41,000 in the state.”
41,000 stores in MP;4000 in Bhopal
Medical stores owners continued to protest the raid by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) following cough syrup deaths in Madhya Pradesh. There are two factors behind the protest—firstly, incompetent persons are in teams and secondly, medical stores owners are given only 24 hours to furnish details record of sale of cough syrups. There are 41,000 medical stores in Madhya Pradesh while 4,000 stores in Bhopal district.
All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) general secretary Rajiv Singhal said, “The medical stores owners are not against any kind of raid to seize the killer cough syrup in stock. But they are protesting against incompetent people kike ASHA workers and others are sent to raid the medical store. FDA, NHM, Health department and district administration itself is competent authority but issue is incompetent authority should not raid any medical store. Such kind of raid give wrong message in market against medical stores. So it is matter of reputation of medical stores.”
Bhopal Chemists Association (BCA) Jitendra Dhakad said, “ it is not possible for us to furnish all details records of sale within 24 hours. So we protested such kind of attitude of FDA team. In some districts, collectors have agreed to give much time like three to four days to show the records of couple of years of sale of cough syrups. In Bhopal district, there are 3500-4000 medical stores and in state 41,000 medical stores.”
[Story by Staff Reporter]
