Kerala DC dept finds it difficult to enforce drug laws due to staff crunch, thousands of pharmacies go unchecked

Since the Kerala state drugs control department reels from a shortage of inspectors, the regulatory cell of the administration finds it hard to enforce drug laws and monitor drug sales.

Sample collection has become name sake throughout the state, and off and on it is carried out in major cities only. Thousands of community pharmacies in village areas go unchecked.  Traders are free to import, distribute and sell any medicine they want, but there is no guarantee that medicines people buy from medical shops are safe, standard and not expired ones.

“For the last two years little inspection work and drawing samples are held in retail drugs stores, wholesale premises, industry units, hospital attached pharmacies, blood banks and in blood storage centers. Inspections at ESI hospitals, veterinary hospitals, cosmetics stores and health centers of defence do not takes place. The authorities concerned say that they are unable to carry out inspections in all the 20,000 plus medical stores and draw samples with very limited number of inspectors,” commented an office-bearer of an NGO working in health sector.

When asked about the situation, Revi S Menon, state drugs controller said if proper and foolproof enforcement has to be carried out, the state needs drug inspectors in the number as suggested by Mashelkar Committee which had proposed one drug inspector for 200 medical stores. Currently the department is working with only 36 inspectors, out of which 12 are senior level officers. Twenty five posts of the minimum strength are lying vacant for the last two years. The situation could worsen when four senior level officers get promoted in next month and two officers leave their offices at the end of their tenure, he added.

The state public services commission has conducted a written test for filling up the vacancies, but it has not called any candidate for interview for final list.

According to the DC, a minimum of 60 inspectors could manage the targeted sample collection every month, but despite several proposals were given to the government, no positive action is taken in favour of the department. As per existing rules, one drug inspector should draw 16 samples from retail outlets per month, and they should be sent to the analytical lab for testing. But in Kerala all these processes are halted for the last two years due to staff crunch.