Bikram Majithia releases show cause notices issued by Health Sec against private centers and Rusan Pharma which are being protected by Balbir Sidhu
Demands Sidhu be dismissed and booked under the NDPS Act
Chandigarh, February 26, 2020: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today presented evidence to prove Health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu was hand in glove with the drug mafia and that he was directly responsible for diverting five crore buprenorphine tablets used to treat narcotic addiction to private centers as well as providing shelter to the accused by indulging in a cover up operation.
Addressing a press conference in the Vidhan Sabha press gallery along with the SAD legislative wing members, former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said now that evidence of the Health minister’s wrong doing was in public domain he should be dismissed immediately and charged under the NDPS Act. “A separate inquiry should also be ordered into the matter to buttress the investigation being carried out by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) keeping in view the seriousness of the Rs 300 crore drug tablet scam”.
Mr Majithia, who was accompanied by Pawan Tinu and Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi, said exemplary action should be taken against Balbir Sidhu as he was not only responsible for the death of thousands of addicts due to diversion of buprenorphine tablets, but also for creating new addicts as the drug if not given under medical supervision could result in addiction. “The minister has also failed in his duty to bring drug addicts into the mainstream and has indulged in corrupt practices which has pushed thousands of youth into addiction”, the Akali leader said.
Giving details of the new evidence against Balbir Sidhu, the SAD leader said the Principal Secretary, Health had served 12 show cause notices to various private centers on December 2, 2019 with details of the missing drug tablets and stated that action would be initiated against them under the NDPS Act as well as licensing rules. He said the centers were asked to submit a reply in ten days. Besides presenting these notices before the media, Mr Majithia also released the show cause notice issued to Rusan Pharma which accuses the company of dispensing 2.87 crore tablets by bypassing the government system.
Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi said instead of taking action against the private centers as well as Rusan Pharma, the Health minister indulged in a cover up operation by overruling the inquiry of the Health Secretary and asking Civil Surgeons to do physical verification to create utilization record. “This is against the grain of the procedure used to dispense the medicine which is online so that a proper record is maintained as to who it is being administered to and by whom. Rules stipulate that the tablet has to be put under the tongue of medical practitioners and there is no record of 5 crore tablets being used in this manner out of the total of 8.3 crore tablets to be used for this purpose between January and November 2019” the Akali leader added.
Mr Majithia also lambasted the Health minister for trying to cover up the illegal diversion of five crore tablets by issuing a warning to erring officials when the Health Secretary was on leave. “We will not let the guilty including Mr Balbir Sidhu go scot free. We will pursue the case and take it to its logical conclusion”, he added.