The health department along with district administration and police is going to launch a campaign against quacks as they have received numerous complaints against them.

According to the chief medical officer (CMO), FIRs will be registered against the quacks and raids will be conducted in different parts of the districts. Clinics and nursing homes who would be found operating without permission of the health department will be sealed.

According to the sources, a large number of illegal clinics are being operating across the district. In rural areas, quacks are even operating hospitals and few of these hospitals even have an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and also claim to provide 24-hour emergency service.

Raids were conducted earlier also but no FIRs were filed against the quacks. Therefore, Dr Ajay Kapoor, who was the nodal officer, was replaced by Dr RK Agnihotri.

Mukesh Kumar Vats, chief medical officer, said that a campaign against quacks and non-permitted clinics, nursing homes and hospitals will be initiated shortly. A joint team of the health department, district administration and police will conduct raids in different places on the basis of the complaints received and available leads. The illegal centers will be sealed and an FIR will be registered against the quacks. If, a quack is caught operating a patient, he or she be immediately arrested.

To date, the health department has identified more than 30 illegal clinics, hospitals and pathology labs. They were sealed but the officials did not register an FIR against them. Sources said that some of the illegal centers sealed earlier have reopened. In the past six months, at least three people have died after getting treatment by quacks.