Chhattisgarh home minister Nankiram Kanwar on Saturday landed in trouble for distributing pills labelled “BJP” among villagers in his home constituency of Korba, claiming them to be malaria resistant.
The Opposition Congress, however, cried foul, accusing him of circulating spurious drugs and demanded his immediate arrest for playing with the lives of people.
Mr Kanwar has been distributing the round tablets to malaria-affected people in villages in his Assembly constituency for the past two months. He invited the wrath of the Opposition party when he started handing out pills labelled “BJP”, apparently to gain political mileage ahead of the Assembly polls in the state.
He has already visited over 30 villages distributing the pills to locals. The minister even claimed that the medicine is both curative and preventive.
“I have distributed the pills to a large number of people in rural areas. I have found the drug very effective in the resistance of malaria since there were no reports of recurrence of the disease in areas where I have distributed the medicine,” he said. On labelling the pills “BJP”, Mr Kanwar said, “Patients take drugs and do not bother about its brand or label. As it is, the letters of the label (BJP) are too small to be noticed.”
The Congress, however, expressed concern over the circulation of an unlicensed drug so brazenly by a minister without knowing of its side-effects and consequence.