The political tussle between the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers and the ruling party in the state of Bihar has virtually shut the chances of free medical aid to the flood victims of the state. The Bihar Government is known to have rejected the medicines donated by the member companies of Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) as part of their commitment to the Central Government on the basis that "there is no instruction from the government to accept the medicines". The pharmaceutical companies who had gone to Patna with lakhs of rupees worth of medicines have been asked to take back the entire stock by the state health department, it is learnt.
According to sources, 11 drug majors, all part of OPPI, had committed to donate drugs to the flood victims of Bihar few weeks ago. Though the representatives of the organization had made this commitment to the Union Minister for C & F Ram Vilas Paswan, the medicines were dispatched by the companies in their individual capacity. It is known that the health authorities declined to accept the medicines "as they are not aware of the donation".
Interestingly, OPPI had been submitting the list of companies and volume of medicines dispatched before the C & F Minister without fail.
According to sources, the organization has asked its members to keep low on the programme due to this unfortunate development.
The medicines offered by OPPI included anti-pyretic, analgesics, ORS for infants, anti-diarrhea, B-complex factors, ointment for skin infections, muscle relaxants and multi-vitamins among others.