Rejoinder and our reply
Moulvibazar ADM Sanat Kumar Shah has issued a rejoinder to a report published in The Daily Star on page 6 on October 3 under the headline-'Life saving drugs scarce in Moulvibazar'.
The rejoinder said, “It was mentioned in the story that it was prepared on investigation, but it is not correct. Practically, the life saving medicine "Bardinal" in tablet or injection form have not been supplied since long. So there is no question that the medicine of Taka 24 is being sold at Taka 400 to 500. This correspondent had not found any evidence in this regard.
“This story was prepared without discussion of 'responsible' authorities in Moulvibazar or anywhere. Source mentioned in the story not proved by this correspondent.
“It was not proper to quote unknown and unauthorised person at the office of the Drug Administration at Dhaka in the story”.
Our Correspondent's reply:
The story was prepared by collecting information from different sources. 'Bardinal' tablet or injection is not available in the local market. A section of unscrupulous brokers bring those from Dhaka Midford wholesale market and sell it at Tk 400-500 which is an open secret in the town. This information was gathered from some medicine shops and verified by this correspondent.
It is unexpected from a trader now to publicly admit charging so exorbitant price of a medicine. Scarcity of supply of this medicine has created this situation.
The four medicine stores mentioned in the story is not liable for this high price. This correspondent talked to salesmen at the stores before preparing the story. They said they got those from some people who brought those from Dhaka as there was no supply of the medicines in Moulvibazar in last ten years. As normal practice, a source can seek anonymity.
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