Fair price drug store fined Rs 10,000

The action follows an inquiry conducted by Civil Surgeon Dr P K Sridhar on a complaint by a resident of Phase 3B2,Mohali, Meenakshi,who had alleged that the store salesman gave her wrong medicine which led to abortion of her foetus.

Acting on directions of PHSC Managing Director (MD) Raji P Shrivastava,Mohali District Civil Hospital Senior Medical Officer (SMO) Dr H S Sarang fined the generic drug store and asked the store proprietor to deposit the penalty money in three days.

In her complaint to the PHSC MD,Meenakshi had submitted that she purchased the medicine from the store on December 31 on the prescription of a government gynaecologist. Within two hours of taking the tablet,profuse bleeding began from her vagina,following which she rushed to the doctor,who found that her 54-day-old foetus had died.

Shrivastava said that though no direct evidence to establish Meenakshi’s complaint was found in the probe,the inspection of the store revealed certain violations like stocking of medicines other than those duly approved and absence of a qualified person at the time of inspection.“On the basis of the violations,we assumed Meenakshi was also given wrong medicine,” she added.

After Amritsar,Mohali was the second place in Punjab to open the store in February 2009. These government-assisted retail stores sell unbranded generic medicines at subsidised rates.