Grahak Suraksha Samiti, a consumer rights organisation, has sought the intervention of Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma into alleged unfair practices by several pathological laboratories in this town and in some rural areas of Cachar district.

There are approximately 90-100 pathological laboratories in the district, of which around 60-70 are in Silchar.

The Samiti’s general secretary, Biplob Kumar Goswami, on Friday said a huge number of pathological laboratories have mushroomed in the urban and rural areas of the district in the past few years and alleged that a large section of them are involved in corrupt practices. The localities in Silchar where the “doubtful” laboratories are located include Tarapur, Hospital Road, Rangirkhari and Ghungoor. In the rural areas, the “most doubtful” areas are Sonai and Kalain, he alleged.

Claiming largescale corruption, Goswami alleged that many of these laboratories do not give the pathologist’s name and signature in the reports, defying guidelines and the prices and results of tests vary from one laboratory to another. Customers are fleeced arbitrarily, he added.

According to government guidelines, the health department must inspect the laboratories at regular intervals but this is not done here, he alleged. He alleged that crores of rupees are pocketed by the laboratories every year and allegedly a section of officials of the health department, in lieu of money, turn a blind eye to the unethical practices.

He said the Samiti had raised the issue in the past following which the authorities had taken some steps but the situation is back to square one.

He urged the district administration and the health department to take measures so that inspections are conducted in the pathological laboratories regularly.

Dopati Paul, manager (administration), Biomed Diagnostic Centre, Silchar, said they, as a franchise of SRL Diagnostics, a major laboratory chain in the country, had to comply with SRL’s billing policy. Therefore, there was no question of over-billing for any test. “We are the first lab in Barak Valley to start quality lab services using all protocols that a quality lab ought to follow like validation of each test before commercially lau-nching the test, daily quality control checks for all tests before running the samples and random inter-laboratory che-ck with other SRL labs,” she said, adding they are open to any inspection by any authority for legal or quality issues.

Cachar joint director of health services Dr Sudip Jyoti Das told The Telegraph on Friday that inspections of pathological laboratories were carried out by health officials regularly and some more steps would be initiated from next week to ensure proper functioning of the laboratories. He said stern action would be taken against laboratories found involved in any unethical or corrupt practice.