Despite banning 328 numbers of drugs by the Central Government, the chemists in Assam are selling 25 numbers of banned drugs without the consent of the state government.
It is due to the negligence of the state government that these chemist shops are selling drugs banned by the Centre. Health and Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who at the time said that the health scenario is much more developed than other states but it seems that he is not aware of the number of medicine inspector present in the state.
It may bementioned here that there are only 11 medicine inspectors against 4500pharmacies in the state. It is not possible for only 11 inspectors to inspect 4500number of pharmacies and therefore, the chemists are also taking advantage ofit and selling drugs which are banned by the central government.
It is notonly in Assam but also in other parts of Northeast that the chemists are sellingbanned drugs by playing with the lives of people. The drugs that are being soldto the customers are mostly of arthritis, spondylitis etc. The drugs such asAce Proxyvon, Spasmo Proxyvon, Codeine Phosphate used in cough, anti-obesitydrug Rimonabant etc. are such drugs which are banned but the chemist shops inthe state are still selling these drugs.
According tosources, the 4500 pharmacies are being inspected by only 11 drug inspectorwhich is not sufficient. Out of these 11 inspectors, 3 are senior inspectorsand 8 are inspectors. On the other hand there are 31 numbers of posts lyingvacant for senior inspector and inspector but the government has not fulfilledthe posts yet. It has been further informed that there are 80-90 number ofinspectors required to monitor the pharmacies.
