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Fake drugs, currency flood markets
SPURIOUS DRUGS CAN maim a society and counterfeit currency can make a serious dent in any country's economy. And if both float together they can wreak havoc.
SPURIOUS DRUGS CAN maim a society and counterfeit currency can make a serious dent in any country's economy.
And if both float together they can wreak havoc.
If sources are correct the ugly tentacles of spurious drugs and counterfeit currency notes have spread so far and wide that hardly any district of the State is untouched by this scourge.
Serious action to check the mushrooming growth of both was the need of the hour and this can only be done after the government takes concrete steps with the determined will to stop it, said a senior police officer.
Having grown into a cottage industry in every district of the State the fake drugs of all hues after being packaged were finding place in the shelves of medical stores which too have mushroomed over the years, said Dy SP Rajeshwar Singh posted here.
Be it Cadila, Pfizer, Glaxo, Welcome, Alembic or any other good brand the tricksters have not spared any company. Imagine the state of a serious patient being administered any of these drugs in an emergency in a hospital or home.
Though evidence regarding life saving drugs being manufactured in the grey market is yet to come but it cannot be said for granted that such fake drugs have not made their way into the market.
And what is left when the drug controller office which is supposed to regularly crack down on such uncouth elements prefers to take a nap.
And this is exactly what is happening these days. Those who are supposed to find out the culprits behind this menace are unheard and unseen, laments a city doctor.
On the other hand cops made efforts to nail a man recently in the Chowk area selling fake drugs of a number of good brands at less than half of the original price. This so-called chemist who had managed to procure a licence to sell drugs was even selling fake vaccine of dog bite.
Those who purchase drugs and don't ask for receipt from the shopkeeper also unintentionally promote the sale of such drugs, said a reputed chemist of the city.
Though insistence on taking the sale voucher would not altogether stop the sale of such drugs but it would put some kind of check on those who are on the look out to catch unsuspecting customers, he added.
With not a single case of drug inspectors raiding retail and wholesale medicine outlets reported in any newspaper this year one can imagine what the saviours of society were doing these days.
The same goes with counterfeit currency notes which are there in the market in abundance. While a big chunk was finding its way here from neighbouring countries the same currency in bulk was also being manufactured locally, said the police officer.
Only the other day cops nabbed a photographer from Kunda in Pratapgarh with counterfeit notes of hundred rupee denomination worth Rs 50,000.
A little earlier the Cantonment police had seized fake currency from a man worth around Rs 3.50 lakh. In both the cases the arrested persons had equipment to manufacture the fake currency. As of now such currency was flowing in heaps from Nepal and Bihar, he pointed out.
Since both the fake drugs and fake currency are being handled by people who are part of an organised crime there was pressing need to form specialised squads to bust them in order to check the menace, said Rajeshwar Singh.
