Highway loot hits medicine supply

Manipur stores closed in protest

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Closed medicine stores in Imphal city. A Telegraph picture Imphal, Feb. 22: Transporters have stopped supplying medicine to Manipur after suspected militants hijacked a truck and robbed medicines worth Rs 15 lakh from Senapati district on February 10. The truck was freed two days later, the traders said. Though police recovered 668 cartons of medicines two days later, no one was arrested. “The incident has ignited fear in the minds of the transporters. No fresh supply has reached the state since February 11. We have enough stock of medicines now. But if the supply does not resume in the next few days, Manipur may face scarcity of medicines,” R.K. Ratan Kumar Singh, general secretary of Manipur Chemists and Druggists Association, said this afternoon. He said no militant group has made any claim. Neither does the association have any misunderstanding with any group. He demanded that the culprits be arrested and brought to book. The association, which controls the medicine business in Manipur, said drug companies, including multi-national ones, warned wholesalers and stockists that they would stop marketing their products in Manipur if such plunder continued. Medicine companies and stores have still not recovered from the losses they suffered in May last year when suspected militants robbed medicines worth Rs 30 lakh between Kangpokpi and Senapati district headquarters. “Whenever such a robbery takes place, the companies tell us that we should bear the loss. The transporters and the companies are unwilling to share the burden. This hampers free supply of medicines,” Ratan Kumar Singh said. Drug companies are also discouraged from trading in Manipur because of “heavy illegal tax” along the Imphal-Dimapur highway by armed groups. While transporters in other states charge Rs 2.50 per kg, the tariff is Rs 6.50 to Rs 7 per kg in Manipur because of the illegal tax, he said. “So we appeal to the armed groups not to target trucks carrying medicines in the interest of the people. The government should also do something to ensure safety of vehicles carrying medicines along the Imphal-Dimapur highway, the main supply line of the state,” he said. More than 500 medicine stores across Manipur valley, including Imphal, closed shop today to protest the plunder. People thronged two medicine stores at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences to replenish stocks.