Bajura, January 4

Drug sellers in rural areas of the far-west are said to be fleecing customers by charging three times the normal price.

Jay Bhandari, a local of Rugin, said he paid more than double the market price for medicines when his son fell ill. “Though the MRP was Rs 191, I had to pay Rs 410 for the drug,” he said.

“The pharmacies in and around urban areas do not overcharge consumers, but sellers in remote and rural areas charge us two to three times more,” said Durga Bajgain, Family Planning Officer at District Health Office Bajura.

“A piece of paracetamol costs 50 paisa to one rupee, but the rural folks are compelled to pay up to Rs 5,” she said.

Dhangadi-based Seti Zonal Hospital Chief Dr Ganesh Bahadur Singh said nobody had the right to overcharge consumers. “Pharmacies are fleecing consumers due to lack of monitoring.

We have also received similar complaints from Dhangadi folks,” he said. Department of Drug Management Nepalgunj is supposed to monitor as many as 24 districts of the mid and far-western regions.

“But no monitoring has been conducted in Bajura so far,” said District Hospital Bajura Chief Dr Mohan Nath.