West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Centre’s “escalation” of the prices of medicine used for treating “various life-threatening diseases” by “nearly 50%”, saying that it should be avoided “to the extent possible”.

In her letter, Banerjee alleged that prices for medicine for conditions “like tuberculosis, asthma, thalassemia, psychiatric conditions, eye problems and several other infections” had been escalated by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers on October 14, through a “Gazette notification”.

The Chief Minister added that the “escalation” would cause an “overwhelming” strain on the budgets of states like West Bengal who provide drugs and treatment to patients “free of cost”. “It disrupts the accessibility of indispensable treatments, potentially hindering public health outcomes and increasing the burden on healthcare systems,” she wrote.

“Only a few months back, the NPPA had “upwardly” revised the prices of essential medicines/formulations for treatment of diabetes, blood pressure and antibiotics, etc. It is needless to mention that such sudden and abrupt price escalation will inflict a serious hardship upon the common people who are already overburdened with the pains of treatment of the critical diseases of their near and dear ones,” Banerjee wrote.

Common people, she reiterated, who are “already reeling under the adverse effects of high prices of day-to-day consumables and associated requirements of life and livelihood”, would suffer a “serious blow… hence (this) should be avoided to the extent possible.”