Punjab Health Minister on February 29 said he will file a defamation suit against Akali leader for allegedly levelling false allegations against him in connection with the diversion of buprenorphine tablets from private de-addiction centres (PDAC).


Speaking in the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday, he had sought the Health Minister's dismissal from the cabinet, alleging that five crore tablets of buprenorphine, a scheduled drug, worth Rs 200 crore had gone missing from the PDCAs. Describing his allegations as "baseless and fallacious", the Health Minister said he will file a defamation suit against the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader.

The previous SAD-BJP government "totally failed" to break the supply line of drugs and now the Akalis are trying to divert people's attention by politicising the issue, the health minister said. The Health Minister said the PDACs are authorised to directly purchase medicines from pharmaceutical companies and the health department has no role in the process. The difference in online and offline records of medicines was noticed by the health department itself. After that, to ensure 100 per cent data entry online, show cause notices have been issued to the PDACs, he added.

The Health Minister said he has directed Principal Secretary to conduct a thorough audit of all the PDACs. He said he has also asked the Principal Secretary to ensure that treatment of patients is not affected during the audit. He added that he is personally monitoring the issue and legal action will be taken after an analysis of the online and offline records of the PDACs.