It is inconceivable that an organization brought into existence with noble purpose will be sabotaged by its own creators. Human mind sometimes works in most astounding manner.
We are pontificating in the context of a particular matter. In 2013, there surfaced the scandal of supply of spurious drugs to Government hospitals and private drug outlets. That revelation created great sensation and the then Government took the step of instituting inquiry into the supply of spurious drugs to health institutions. Nothing could be more serious for the doctors and more dangerous for the patients than to administer spurious drugs. How would the patients recover when fake drugs were administered to them?
In view of the gravity of the case and loud protests from the public, the Government took a strong step of reaching the root of this problem. It concluded that there could be a nexus between the ill-intended stake holders, namely the supplies, the distributors and financiers. When people betray their conscience, they are capable of committing serious crimes. Thus for pecuniary benefits, people devoid of conscience resort to playing with the precious lives of people. Therefore to undo their designs, the Government decided to create J&K State Medical Supplies Corporation with the terms of reference that it would ensure the procurement of quality drugs and also put in place a fool-proof drug testing mechanism. The State Cabinet approved the creation of Corporation in May 2013. Obviously creation of the Corporation for procurement of drugs was resented by the vested interest when it realized that it meant a direct onslaught on their malpractice of supplying spurious drugs. Therefore, these elements began making efforts of paralysing the Corporation by creating alliance with sections of officials which became instrumental in creating administrative and financial as well as logistic obstructions in the functioning of the Corporation. For full one year, the Finance Department went on tossing the files from table to table and starving the Corporation. The then Chief Minister himself presided over the first meeting of the Corporation in June 2013, in which he emphasized that the task of procuring drugs should commence without delay. But this had no impact on the concerned section of officials and the Corporation continued to remain non-functional. The final nail in the coffin was drawn when its chief was transferred in a recent reshuffle package leaving the organization headless.
There are several States that have implemented the new mechanism of procurement of quality drugs through the instrument of Medical Supplies Corporation. The functionality of those Corporations has been reported as perfect and the States have no complaints whatsoever. Why should it happen in the case of J&K State only? This is a mystery and ought to be resolved.
It is the responsibility of the Government to see to it that the Corporation created for a noble cause is provided all possible support and advantage that help it become effectively functional. Authorities at higher levels should know that a strong and influential segment of vested interests is at work and is trying to scuttle the reformative scheme of the Government. Therefore, it must move quickly and find out who are the sport spoilers and then take them to task. Supply of quality drugs is critically important issues because lives of millions of people can be at risk if spurious drugs are supplied. The initiative which the Corporation had taken to resort to e-tendering for procurement of drugs could have worked very well but it was not scuttled. All that we can say is that there is a very formidable nexus among the producers, suppliers and distributors and it is a big scam that must be unearthed and smashed without loss of time.
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