West Bengal Chief Minister sued over spurious blood test kits

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CM sued over spurious blood test kits

Tribune News Service, Kolkata, November 2

West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has been

accused of shielding " guilty " officials and the employees of the

Health Department involved in the supply of spurious blood test kits

to blood banks, which caused hepatitis and HIV infection among

hundreds of people in the state.

A PIL was filed in the Calcutta High Court against the state

government, making the Chief Minister, the Health Minister, Dr

Suryakanto Mishra, and the Health Secretary as respondents. The case

will come up for hearing next week.

Advocate Arunava Ghosh, a former Trinamool Congress MLA, appearing

on behalf of the petitioner, Mr Tapas Sengupta, the father of a

thalassaemia patient demanded that the guilty persons should get

exemplary punishment for the crime they had committed. He wondered

how the Chief Minister could give a clean chit to the Health

Department prior to any investigation.

Mr Sengupta's son was recently infected with HIV following a blood

transfusion after it was tested by a spurious test kit. He has held

the Chief Minister and the Health Minister responsible for it. He

said after the exposure of the Rs 2.5 crore blood test kit scam, the

Chief Minister has no moral right to be in the chair.

In the petition filed in the high court, Mr Ghosh pleaded that those

people who had received blood which was examined with spurious test

kits during the past one-and-a-half-year should be prevented from

donating any blood to stop the spread of hepatitis and HIV

infection.

He said the court should appoint an independent expert team to probe

the entire procedure of supplying of test kits to government

hospitals and blood banks by a sole supplier, Monozyme India, a

Secundrabad-based medicine company for the last 16 months. He

alleged that by asking the CBI to probe the matter, the Chief

Minister was diluting the state government's involvement in the

scam.

Incidentally, the Sarda brothers, who own the company have already

been put under detention and have been refused bail. The police was

also on the lookout for five persons including the middleman

involved in the racket.

But so far, neither the senior IAS official nor the five other

employees who were directly connected in ordering the test kits

worth over Rs 2.5 crore to Monozyme India, have been arrested or

interrogated.

Today, several demonstrations and meetings were organised in

Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, West Dinajpur, Malda, Burdwan, Nadia,

Howrah, 24-pargans and Kolkata districts.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20061103/main9.htm#2

______________________

Dr. Avnish Jolly

E-MAIL: <avnishjolly@...>