NELLORE: Tension prevailed at Krishnapatnam in Muthukur mandal on Monday morning when villagers confronted Bonigi Anandaiah, opposing distribution of his herbal concoction claimed to be a preventive medicine for Omicron. They complained that the distribution of his ‘herbal medicine’ led to chaos in the village as a large number of people from various parts of the country started making a beeline for Krishnapatnam. This might result in rise in Covid cases in the village, they said.
The villagers also questioned him whether he got any permission from the authorities concerned for distributing his herbal medicine. This sparked heated arguments between Anandaiah and the villagers. Police restored normalcy after holding talks with the villagers and Anandaiah.
“I reside beside the house of Anandaiah. We faced severe trouble during the first wave of Covid-19. Even though there has been no full details about Omicron, Anandaiah has claimed that he prepared preventive medicine for the new coronavirus variant,” said his neighbour.
‘Have evidence to establish herbal medicine works’
“With his announcement, people from various parts of the country have started visiting Krishnapatnam to get his ‘medicine’. Keeping the previous experience in view, villagers have already appealed to Anandaiah to shift the venue of medicine distribution to another place. But he continued the distribution of his ‘medicine’ ignoring villagers’ appeal. The State government should intervene in the matter and stop preparation and distribution of medicine in the village to protect villagers from viral infections,” said Venkateswarlu, Upa Sarpanch of Krishnapatnam.
Anandaiah is now distributing 700-800 packets of ‘medicine’ a day. Anandaiah who is ready to prepare the ‘preventive concoction’ based on the requirement, claimed that the State government and the High Court had permitted him to distribute P, F, L and K medicines earlier.
“Several Covid patients have recovered from the virus after taking my medicine. I have all the required evidence to establish the fact that my medicine works on Covid. I have prepared the preventive medicine for Omicron by adding a few more ingredients to my herbal medicine,” Anandaiah said. Terming the villagers’ obstruction to his ‘medicine’ distribution inhuman, he claimed, “I have no need to distribute the medicine elsewhere.”