KARUR/COIMBATORE: The instructions in Hindi, along with English and Tamil, written on the medicine covers distributed at the government medical college hospitals in Karur and Coimbatore have triggered another controversy, with the opposition parties questioning the TVK government’s stand on the two-language policy.
Meanwhile, the hospital authorities have instructed the staff to stop issuing the medicine covers, printed at a cooperative press in Erode in December 2025. The move followed the criticism levelled by former DMK minister TRB Rajaa against the TVK government on the social media on Tuesday.
TRB Rajaa, in his ‘X’ post, said, “It seems like the three-language policy is being implemented in Tamil Nadu hospitals too.” He had also quoted Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, where the same type of covers were being used to highlight ‘Dosage and Administration Intervals’.
When contacted, Dr M Bharathi Mohan, dean of Government Medical College Hospital, Karur, told TNIE they usually get the covers from Madurai jail, where they are produced by inmates. However, due to a shortage, the authorities had ordered the covers from the cooperative printing press in Erode in December 2025.
“We usually get plain brown covers without any letters, and the staff at the pharmacy print only Tamil letters using a rubber stamp. When the order was placed with the Erode press, we were not given any instructions to print anything. However, they had printed the words on their own on large-sized covers. The order was placed in December 2025. However, nobody noticed the Hindi letters. Once the issue surfaced on social media, we instructed the staff to stop using the covers immediately,” the dean added.
Similarly, Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) replaced the medicine covers with Hindi letters printed on them with plain covers after the controversy. The authorities said they were told to manually stamp the ‘Dosage Regimen’ and fill it in as per the prescription before handing medicines over to patients.Health officials said the practice of providing medicines in covers printed with the dosage regimen is common. It largely helps migrant labourers in Coimbatore.
Meanwhile, pharmacists working at the CMCH criticised the move to give medicines in plain covers, saying the migrant workers won’t be able to understand the dosage instructions if it’s only in English and Tamil. They also said already they are facing a manpower shortage, and explaining the dosage to migrant workers will consume more time.
