District Magistrate of Srinagar Shahid Choudhary denied the claim that the local life-saving drugs shops have run out of supplies in the district. The office of the Medical Superintendent of the SMHS Hospital, Srinagar have also refuted the claim.

Since the government of India repealed Article 370 and 35A which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the fake news is continuously coming.

On 22 August, The Wire published an article claiming that Kashmir is running short of life-saving drugs.

According to the report, the Valley’s drug stores are running short of stocks as the region continues to grapple with restrictions and communication blockade for 18th straight day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government scrapped its autonomous status on August 5. Though the Valley’s markets are shut, drug stores remain open. However, they are not able to replenish exhausted stocks

Shahid Choudhary, District Magistrate of Srinagar, along with The Wire's story tweeted a clarification that there was no interruption in supplies.

"All concerns and worries are deeply appreciated but we were not low on medical stocks even for a single day. No interruption in supplies. Still open to help individual cases, if any".



Last week also, Shahid Chaudhary tweeted to deny reports of widespread drugs shortage in Kashmir.

"As many as 1166 medical shops are open. Cash machines have disbursed Rs 243.44Cr in last 4 days. All sorts of stocks being replenished as demanded. Agree, some people are still facing difficulties. We are trying to address every single problem flagged. Trust. # Srinagar."

Medicines stocks available for the next 5-6 weeks

Following the rebuttal by Shahid Choudhary, the founding editor of The Wire, Siddharth Varadarajan tweeted a story by News 18 which claims that the doctors have told the reporter that the Valley is running out of Lifesaving Medicines.

The Twitter handle of Srinagar District administration tweeted to give an update on the availability of the life-saving drugs. They have listed down all the medicines and their availability as of 26th Aug.

The tweet further claims that none of the doctors have spoken to the reporter and asked the reporter to come clear on the mischievous headline.

The SMHS quoted in the story has reported availability of medicines for 5-6 weeks. Medical Superintendent has expressed concern about doctors of hospitals being quoted wrongly, notwithstanding their efforts for 24×7 health services delivery. None of the Doctors at SMHS spoke to said reporter. Hospital has requested the Reporter to come clear on this mischievous headline. Details of stocks availability already posted above.

The office of the Medical Superintendent of the SMHS Hospital, Srinagar issued a notice to refute the reports of a shortage of life-saving drugs and have clarified that the sufficient quantity of life-saving drugs are available for more than a month.

Conclusion: We will leave our readers here without giving any conclusion as it is not possible for us to independently verify the claims and counter-claims.

Unknown sources have always been the key to reporting against the government's lackluster attitude towards poor and officials will always try to hide their failures. So, we have decided to refrain ourselves from giving any conclusion in such stories. Instead, we will present both sides of the story and will leave it to the readers to draw a conclusion.