Quacks and Narcotics menace cause concern in RR District

Rangareddy: Following a raid on a private clinic in Ibrahimpatnam mandal in Ranga Reddy district on Wednesday, when a quack was found running it illegally, many eyebrows were raised with sneaking suspicion about the number of such fraudulent operations in residential areas simply putting lives of common people in jeopardy.

According to reports, authorities from the Drugs Control Administration Ranga Reddy Zone raided a clinic at Patelguda village in the mandal on credible information. They found a ‘quack’ running the facility without required qualifications and approvals. The officials even found unauthorised stock of medicines being stored for sale.

Later, the DCA officials revealed that they raided the premises of K Hanumantha Rao, a ‘quack’ running the clinic without requisite qualifications. They confiscated at least 87 varieties of medicines, including antibiotics, analgesics, anti-ulcer drugs, anti-hypertensives worth Rs.50,000 during the raid. The DCA authorities also seized several antibiotic injections from the clinic.

According to authorities, indiscriminate sale of antibiotics by an unqualified person may lead to severe health complications, including emergence of antimicrobial resistance in the body which may put lives of people in jeopardy. The DCA officials later took samples of medicines for analysis pending further action.

Led by assistant director DCA RR zone Anjum Abida, the raiding team included drug inspectors V Ravi Kumar (Balapur), J Naga Raju (Saroornagar) and L Raji (Hayathnagar).

Meanwhile, the maiden raid against ‘quacks’ in the district left people appalled. They are arguing how many more such quacks are operating in the district without proper qualification and necessary approvals.

Raising concern over the way ‘quacks’ are operating with full impunity, Syed Shoukat Ali, a social activist said, “there may be more such quacks operating in the district, especially in densely populated areas like slums. The need of the hour is to activate the DCA and continue such raids, both based on complaints as well as using administrative tip-offs.”

Not just ‘quacks’, even hospitals are operating without proper qualified staff and approvals. Authorities from the Health department as well as the Vigilance must swing into action against such unhealthy and threatening trends. Also, teenagers are found using narcotics that generally led to crimes. The police should keep a vigil over the growing use of such intoxicating substances,” said Syed Sami, another city-based social activist.