Shankar Ghosh, the BJP MLA of Siliguri, on Tuesday filed a police complaint against Paschimbanga Pharmaceuticals, the company that is under scanner for supplying Ringer’s lactate (RL) which allegedly led to the death of a new mother in Midnapore.
In his complaint lodged at Siliguri police station, the MLA said it was a criminal offence to administer the RL to patients even after the Karnataka government had blacklisted the company which produced the fluid.
“We have filed a complaint against Paschimbanga Pharmaceuticals, which produced the RL. The Karnataka government blacklisted the company and yet, the fluid was administered to lactating mothers at the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital. It is a criminal offence,” said Ghosh.
Mamani Ruidas, a new mother, died at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital on Friday after she was given the RL. Three other women fell sick when they were provided with the same fluid. They are now under treatment at the SSKM Hospital
in Calcutta.
The company, which supplies the RL, other intravenous fluids and medicines, to government-run healthcare establishments in Bengal, has its office at Burdwan Road in Siliguri. The plant, where these medicines are made, is at Tinmilehat in Sonapur in the neighbouring North Dinajpur district.
The production stopped at the plant after December 11 following a raid by a joint team of the drug control authorities of Karnataka and Bengal. On Tuesday, a letter from the Karnataka government addressed to the company, reached the local post office. A postman went to the plant to deliver the letter but couldn’t,
sources said.
Ghosh said despite knowing the health hazards of the fluid after the deaths in Karnataka, doctors at the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital allowed the RL’s use.
“These people should be arrested. Officials of the state health department should be brought under the ambit of the probe,” said the MLA.
The government had been alerted to the potential health hazards of the RL in March last year.