Uttar Pradesh: District police chiefs told to distribute seized Covid medicines, oxygen cylinders

After getting directions from the Allahabad High Court, the UP Police on Wednesday directed the district administration to give away medicines like remdesivir, oxygen cylinders and oximeters that were seized by them during raids against black marketing in several districts.

With these items in huge demand amid the ongoing second surge of the Covid pandemic, the High Court had directed the government to make the confiscated goods available to the poor as they are in short supply.

ADG (Law & Order) Prashant Kumar said here medicines to treat Covid will be redistributed by the district administrations to the hospitals after they are released from a local court and cleared by a drug inspector in the district. “We have instructed district police chiefs and district administration to expedite the process. The work will be overseen by a committee headed by the district magistrates who are responsible for the oxygen supply and other Covid arrangements,” said Kumar.

The Allahabad High Court, during a hearing of a PIL on the Covid situation in the state on Tuesday, had directed the state government to look into the possibility of distributing oxygen cylinders and oximeters that were confiscated by the police to the poor.

Additional Advocate General (AAG) Manish Goyal had told the court that he would take up the issue with the state government “so that proper disposal of the articles like oxygen cylinder, remdesivir injection and oximeter is done and they are not wasted”.