Acharya feels hooch heat

BHUBANESWAR: The Assembly on Friday witnessed noisy scenes over the recent hooch tragedy which has claimed at least 40 lives. The Opposition Congress demanded  resignation of Health and Family Welfare Minister Prasanna Acharya on moral grounds.  The issue was raised during the Question Hour when the Minister was replying to a question from Sadhu Nepak (Cong) on the raids conducted by the Health Department on chemist stores dealing in medicines mixed with alcohol. As certain medicines tested positive for deadly methanol, the Health Minister should own responsibility and step down, demanded Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh. Din prevailed when the BJD members opposed while Singh was speaking. The Congress members rushed into the Well in protest.  Singh’s party colleague Santosh Singh Saluja demanded the Health Minister’s resignation saying it has been proved that the deceased had consumed liquor having medicine content. While the Health Department is primarily responsible for the deaths, the then Excise minister AU Singhdeo had to resign, he added.  Acharya, however, blamed the Centre for not amending the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, which allows pharmaceutical companies to manufacture medicines having alcohol content.   “The State Government tried to ban sale of such alcoholic medicines, but it can’t stop their circulation due to lack of provision under the Act,” the Minister pointed out. Though the Government in the past had banned manufacture and sale of such medicines containing alcohol, the pharmaceutical companies stalled it by securing orders from courts. “The State Government had twice banned manufacture of such alcohol-containing medicines in 1989 and 2002. But the pharmaceutical companies could successfully nullify it,” Acharya said.  NCP Legislature Party leader Amar Prasad Satpathy alleged that Controller of Drugs utterly failed to prevent circulation of spurious medicines. “The Government cannot hang the persons found out of track. There should be legal backing to the Government’s efforts to stop circulation of such medicines,” the Minister reasoned.