Officials Disown Responsibility for Medicines, Local People Raise Questions
Tauseef Ahmad
Bandipora, Aug 13: A large quantity of expensive medicines, including Linezolid and Paracetamol infusions, were destroyed and burned on the Bandipora-Sopore road near the Middle School Badyara.
Local residents, while speaking with The Kashmir Despatch, said that they are struggling to even get a paracetamol tablet from Primary Health Centers, and the authorities are dumping these medicines in large quantities instead of distributing them to the locals.
“These are very expensive medicines that cost around ₹600 if we buy them from private medical shops. The local residents raise the question of where these medicines came from if the concerned authorities did not own them,” said Abdul Rashid, a local resident.
Another local resident, Abdul Rehaman, alleged that the medical authorities were responsible for this incident. He said that in the early hours, the medicines had been thrown at several places in his village and then burned.
“If these medicines had expired, there is a proper way to destroy medical waste. How can they burn it in front of a school? It can lead to serious diseases in our school-going children,” he lamented.
The locals have appealed to LG Sinha and the District Administration of Bandipora to look into the matter and take action against those involved in this practice.
Meanwhile, the Block Medical Officer of Bandipora, Dr. Tahir Malik, denied responsibility for the medicines, stating that this was the supply of higher institutions.
He did not respond to the query about whether the Bandipora Health Department had the availability of these medicines.
Sources from the Bandipora District Hospital said that the supply is given to different medical blocks in the district and is not available at the District Hospital Bandipora.
Repeated attempts to reach the Director of Health Services, Kashmir, Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad, was unsuccessful, as he did not respond to several texts and calls from the reporter.
