Deputy CM questioned on Rewa cough syrup case:Rajendra Shukla says strict action taken to curb menace

The Madhya Pradesh government aims to upgrade all 348 Community Health Centres (CHCs) into First Referral Units (FRUs) so that only referred cases reach district hospitals or medical colleges. Deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister Rajendra Shukla said a complete roadmap has been prepared for the plan. In an interview with Dainik Bhaskar Digital State Editor Kapil Bhatnagar, Shukla also acknowledged that cough syrup is being misused as an intoxicant in Rewa and nearby districts. He said the government has tried to curb the problem effectively. Shukla also spoke about his priorities for the year and key developments in the health sector. 1. As Deputy Chief Minister you have completed two years. What do you consider your biggest achievement?
Rajendra Shukla: If I talk about my department, the biggest challenge has been the shortage of doctors and human resources in rural areas. To address this, we sanctioned 39,000 posts over the last two years. The recruitment process has started. Around 4,500 people have already joined. The recruitment for the remaining posts is underway and we will soon have the required staff. Wherever there is a shortage of staff, we will post them there to fill the human resource gap. To overcome the shortage of doctors, our manifesto also promised that we would open a medical college in every parliamentary constituency. Except for four constituencies, medical colleges have started in 25 Lok Sabha constituencies. Work is ongoing in some places. Six more medical colleges will be added in the coming years. Before 2003 there were only five medical colleges. Today there are 19 government and 14 private medical colleges. In the next three years we will take the number of medical colleges beyond 50. For the registration and check-up of pregnant women, the 9th and 25th of every month have been fixed. On these dates, doctors are arranged at places where there are none. On these days ASHA workers bring high-risk pregnant women to the centres. Doctors examine them there. If needed, blood transfusions are also done. They are also referred to higher health centres if required. Because of this, the IMR and MMR have declined. In Madhya Pradesh, maternal mortality has reduced from 173 to 137. Infant mortality has come down from 48 to 37. This number is continuously declining. 2. Whether it’s the Chhindwara cough syrup case, Indore MY rat incident, or the case of HIV-infected blood transfusion in Satna, why wasn’t effective action taken?
Rajendra Shukla: Action has been taken in those cases. For example, in the Chhindwara cough syrup case, under the Government of India Act, if a medicine factory opens anywhere in the country, the licence is issued by the state government and the renewal is also done by the same state. If the medicine is not part of government supply, self-certification has to be done by the company itself. If any irregularity is found, there is a punishment of up to 10 years under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The responsibility lies with the company. Under the campaign to end licence-raj, self-certification had to be done under the Act of the Government of India. That factory was in Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu government gave it the licence and also renewed it. The medicine supplied by them came to Madhya Pradesh to a stockist in Jabalpur and from the stockist it went to Chhindwara. That medicine was not being supplied by our government. When any medicine comes into government supply, we test the samples of every batch and only after that allow it to be supplied. We formed an SIT in this case. The company owner was brought from Chennai after arrest. Action was also taken against the stockist and distributor. Now the government has decided that apart from Bhopal, testing labs will also be started in Indore, Jabalpur and Gwalior. They are being upgraded and recruitment is being done. Sampling and testing will be increased at every divisional headquarters. In the Chhindwara incident, action has been taken according to the existing rules and laws. As far as rats in MY Hospital are concerned, the building is very old. Rats enter through the drainage system or have made burrows there. It was in a very unhygienic condition. We have prepared a redevelopment plan for the entire campus. ₹772 crore has been approved for this project and the foundation stone has already been laid. This is a very old problem. When our present Chief Secretary was the Indore Collector, he ran a campaign and got 10,000 to 20,000 rats killed. But that cannot be a permanent solution, so a full redevelopment plan has been prepared. Similarly, redevelopment plans have been prepared for all the five medical colleges that existed before 2003. In the Satna case, blood banks need to be monitored more strictly because the six children involved were thalassemia patients. Thalassemia patients need blood transfusion three times a month. If blood is not given, their lives can be at risk. After this incident we are deciding that blood donation should not be done only on the basis of rapid tests. We are trying to use upgraded tests for blood donation. The staff of the blood bank are being thoroughly investigated to check if there was any negligence. For now, they have been suspended. 3. Out of 19 government medical colleges in the state, 7 have neither faculty nor equipment for teaching, how will doctors be trained?
Rajendra Shukla: In new medical colleges, for the three first-year courses, recognition will not be given unless faculty doctors are available. The National Medical Commission gives approval only after that. As students move into the second and third years, faculty members are recruited through advertisements and walk-in interviews according to the departmental model. It is true that because we are opening medical colleges rapidly, getting faculty is a challenge. Take the example of Shahdol Medical College. When recruitment started there, there was a big shortage of faculty. Recently we recruited 50 assistant professors, associate professors and professors. Out of them, 26 were for Shahdol Medical College alone. This surprised many people. Gradually the rollout is happening and people are joining. What do you want to achieve in the health sector in the next one year?
Rajendra Shukla: After the government’s two-year achievements, the biggest goal for the next year in the health sector is to make Community Health Centers (CHC) fully operational. Each Community Health Center has six specialist positions and their building costs approximately 18 to 20 crore rupees. We have approved all necessary positions and the goal is to develop all 348 Community Health Centers of the state as First Referral Units (FRU). The benefit will be that general and essential surgery, radiology, anesthesia facilities will be available there. Only serious cases will need to be referred to district hospitals or medical colleges. This will also reduce crowding there. 4. The initial response to air service from Rewa to Indore is good. Will the response remain the same in future?
Rajendra Shukla: Rewa and the Vindhya region have a lot of potential. About 13–14 years ago, I wrote for the first time to the Civil Aviation Ministry that an airport in Rewa was very necessary. About 40 million tonnes of cement is produced there. Around 15,000 MW of electricity is generated from coal. There are three national parks — Bandhavgarh, Sanjay Gandhi and Panna. Mukundpur White Tiger Safari is a world-class safari. From a religious point of view there is Maihar’s Sharda Mata temple and Chitrakoot. If the Bansagar dam and the Rewa airport had been built earlier, the Vindhya region would have been competing with any region in the country in terms of development. After my letter, a feasibility study was done and it was found that the project was feasible. The foundation stone was laid in 2023. In 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated it from Varanasi and in 2025 we got two ATR aircraft. Alliance Air operates flights from Rewa to Delhi and through IndiGo flights from Indore to Rewa, connectivity to cities like Pune and Bengaluru has increased. If you check, the Rewa–Delhi flight has an occupancy of 65–66 passengers in a 72-seater aircraft. The Rewa–Indore flight that started on the 22nd is also carrying around 55–60 passengers. 5. Cases of cough syrup and drug trafficking and sales keep coming up in Rewa. What is the plan to stop this?
Rajendra Shukla: For this, we have given clear instructions to the police system that no effort should be left undone. We have held several meetings with police officers on this issue. Whenever a new SP or DIG takes charge here, I clearly tell them that I have only one expectation from them — that Corex and drugs must be completely eliminated from Rewa. Rewa is developing rapidly, but if the coming generation falls into addiction, what will be the use of this development? This statement shakes the police officers from within and they act with full strength. Police officers told us that in Uttar Pradesh the NDPS Act was not implemented as strictly as it is in Madhya Pradesh. If the quantity was below a certain level, strict action was not taken there. On this issue I myself went to Uttar Pradesh and met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and explained the entire situation to him. I am happy that now the NDPS Act is being implemented in Uttar Pradesh with the same strictness as in Madhya Pradesh. Because of this, infiltration from there has reduced to a large extent. So far around 800 people across districts are in jail in cases related to the NDPS Act and Corex smuggling. We did not try to suppress this issue. Instead, we openly brought it forward and made it a topic of discussion. 7. What is the plan for health improvement in rural areas?
Rajendra Shukla: The shortage of doctors in rural areas can be addressed to a large extent through telemedicine. If doctors at sub-health centres and primary health centres develop the habit of consulting specialists from medical colleges through telemedicine, most patients can be treated there itself. Just like there was doubt in the beginning about UPI, but today the country is leading the world. Even a street vendor or auto driver is making payments through mobile. In the same way, if people develop the habit of telemedicine, it will bring a major change in the rural healthcare system. We have also developed lab facilities on the hub-and-spoke model where all types of tests are possible. Our approach in the health sector is based on three stages. The first is preventive care, where people get regular check-ups so that diseases can be prevented before they occur. The second is curative care, where super-speciality hospitals should be available at divisional headquarters with facilities like cancer treatment, kidney, liver and heart surgeries, angioplasty and transplants. The third is geriatric care, under which senior citizens above 70 years can get free treatment up to ₹5 lakh. In the last two years we have prepared a strong foundation in this direction. In the coming year our target is to take these plans to their logical conclusion.​​​​​​