Lucknow: Criticising the BJP govt over recent FSDA revelations on instances of heavy overpricing of medicines sold at pharmacies in govt and private hospitals, Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday said the govt will not rein in the pharmaceutical companies as BJP takes hefty commissions from them.Highlighting media reports citing Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) searches at 214 pharmacies housed in govt and private hospitals, many of which were found to be selling medicines at 10 times their cost, Akhilesh said that such shocking revelations only expose how the BJP govt prefers to look the other way as some pharma companies continue to fleece poor patients.“People in the BJP pocket hefty cuts from pharmaceutical companies, so the govt simply cannot take any action. Nothing better can be expected from a party like BJP which does not shy away from stealing donations that devout spare from their hard earned savings for a holy place like Ram Temple in Ayodhya,” Akhilesh said.“It is not only about donation theft and hefty cuts from pharma companies, people associated with the BJP have taken heavy advance commissions from investors and later give clean chit to its own people. The BJP people set up ‘care funds’ in the name of others and then declare it ‘audit free’. Will such people spare pharma companies?” Akhilesh asked.He said nothing much should be expected from the BJP govt which humiliated a religious head like Shankaracharya, overlooked instances like desecration of Ambedkar’s statues, unleashed unprecedented injustice on minorities and indulged in rampant corruption in development projects. “It was perhaps for the first time in UP that an IPS officer was declared an absconder and raids were conducted at police stations – this when the govt claims zero tolerance towards crime,” Akhilesh said.Senior SP functionary Prof Sudhir Panwar, who posted a news report on FSDA findings, said BJP functionaries like Mahesh Sharma own hospitals and must be aware of what is going on in pharmacies across the state. “Why did it need an FSDA to expose that a injection costing Rs 74 was being sold for Rs 4,980 at a pharmacy? When a govt can decide the price of agricultural produce, why it cannot decide the selling price of medicines. After all, medicines are sold by registered companies which means the govt knows everything,” Panwar said.
