Bhubaneswar: Shalini Pandit, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Health Department, Government of Odisha, has written to her Uttar Pradesh counterpart Aparna U stating that her department is sending a team comprising three officers accompanied by police officers to Varanasi to carry forward an investigation into the sale, supply and distribution of spurious drugs in Odisha.
The Health Department team comprising Dr Sudarsan Biswal, Assistant Drugs Controller, Tushar Ranjan Panigrahi, Assistant Drugs Controller, and Dharmadev Puhan, Assistant Drugs Controller will proceed to Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh to obtain relevant details of firms from the Drugs Control Administration in Uttar Pradesh.
It may be noted that the Special Task Force team (Drugs Enforcement Squad) constituted by the Government of Odisha investigated the details of procurement of spurious drugs in Bargarh and Jharsuguda districts in Odisha and found that there is an inter-state gang transaction in the sale, supply and distribution of spurious drugs among the Ashok Medical Hall of Bargarh district and M/s Amit Medical Agencies, Jharsuguda district, with M/s Baby Enterprises, M/s JP Medicals and M/s Guru Kripa Medicals of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
In her letter, Shalini Pandit has requested the Principal Secretary of the Medical Health and Family Welfare department, Government of Uttar Pradesh, for issuing necessary instructions to the concerned authorities of Uttar Pradesh to extend their cooperation to the team deputed for the purpose so as to take things to a logical conclusion.
