Sukesh. C. Khajuria: a lone crusader against spurious drugs
Sukesh. C. Khajuria: a lone crusader against spurious drugs
S.M.A. KAZMI
Dehradun, Oct 29
There has been an outcry at the national and international level following the death of 22 infants in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan after consuming spurious cough syrup adulterated with Industrial grade Diethylene Glycol (DEG) commonly used in industrial solvent in anti-freeze mixtures and brake fluids, this month.
The outcry in media has resulted in action against the companies manufacturing such spurious drugs but with the passage of time everything is forgotten. It is irony that In such a vast country like India having 140 million people majority of them poor inaccessible to quality healthcare and medical services, the menace of spurious drugs has not been tackled by the drug authorities in right earnest.
The recent case brings to light the lone fight waged by Sukesh. C. Khajuria, a social worker of Jammu against the menace of spurious drugs five years ago following the death of a dozen infants/children due to consumption of a particular spurious cough syrup in Ramnagar Tehsil of Udhampur District of Jammu and Kashmir during month of Dec 2019 – January 2020.
There was a callous silence on the part of the Drug authorities of J&K on the issue. Frustrated with the response of the J&K officials, Sukesh. C. Khajuria had to knock at the doors of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to seek monetary compensation for the poor families of the deceased infants.
While taking up the matter on 07.09.2020 the Commission, after consideration of facts & circumstances of the case, found that there was a procedural lapse on the part of the Drug Department of the State of Jammu & Kashmir wherein the authority had duly failed to keep a regular vigil on the contamination and contents of medicines sold within its jurisdiction and thus held that the state is vicariously liable for said negligence. In view of that, by exercising power u/s 18a(i) of PHR Act, 1993, the Commission directed the Chief Secretary, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir to show cause within four weeks as to why the Commission should not recommend payment of compensation of Rs. 3,00,000/- to the next of kin (NoK) of each deceased in the present case, who died due to the consumption of adulterated oral syrup/medicine and whose human rights have been infringed. The authority was further directed to also file report with regard to action taken against the delinquent officials, on account of whose negligence such incident had occurred, which could otherwise be averted due to their strict vigil.
The said recommendation was confirmed vide direction dated 18.01.2021 wherein the Chief Secretary, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir was asked to pay monetary compensation of Rs. 3,00,000/- to the NoK of each deceased in the present case, who died due to the consumption of adulterated oral syrup/medicine and whose human rights were infringed. It was further directed that the compliance report along with proof of payment be made available to the Commission within six weeks, positively.
Interestingly, the J&K government did everything to stonewall the NHRC directions. The NHRC orders were challenged in the J&K High Court which rejected the government plea and upheld the NHRC orders. The J&K government even went to the Supreme Court challenging the High court order.
Instead of showing some humanity and goodwill gesture of paying any ex-gratia or voluntary compensation to the victims, the J&K Govt. fought a long legal battle with in NHRC and Hon’ble J&K High Court. Lastly, they also filed an SLP(c) NO 8345 OF 2021 against the Final judgment and order dated 02.03.2021 passed by the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu and Kashmir in Writ Petition No.388 of 2021 IN THE MATTER OF UNION TERRITORY OF JAMMU & KASHMIR AND ORS V. NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMISSION AND ORS, making every possible attempts to deny compensation to the victims.
The payment of compensation of Rs.3,00,000 /- lakhs each was paid to the NOK of the 12 deceased infants after NHRC issued a final reminder to the Chief Secretary , Govt. of UT of J&K as well as Additional Chief Secretary , department of health & medical education, UT of J&K, to submit the proof of payment within six weeks positively falling which NHRC would be constrained to invoke its coercive powers u/s 13 of PHR Act 1993 calling for the personal appearance of the authority concerned before the commission.
Sukesh. C. Khajuria is still fighting to get compensation for another young victim Rutav who was the first to die of spurious drug in Ramnagar area of Udhampur district but could not get compensation. Sukesh. C. Khajuria has written to the Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur to look into his case.
He lamented that there is no seriousness on the part of the bureaucracy and an alleged cartel of drug manufacturers and drug controllers in every state has been playing with the lives of the common people particularly poor.
