Last Updated on February 5, 2021 by The Health Master
Prior to the general election in Tamil Nadu, the state government has begun a drive to fill up all the vacancies in the drugs control department under the health ministry.
As part of the drive, the government has taken steps to fill up the vacant posts of one joint director (JD), one deputy director (DD), 46 posts of drug inspectors (DI) and other administrative staff.
By promoting the senior most assistant drugs controller (ADC), PU Karthikeyan from zone 3 of Chennai, to the rank of deputy director, the government posted him at the headquarters office. He assumed charge as DD on February 1.
The post has remained unoccupied for the last four years.
Further, the process of filling up the post of joint director, which is also lying vacant for several years, is in the pipeline, and hopefully it will be filled up in the coming week, said M Sivabalan, the director of the drugs control administration.
He told Pharmabiz that the government was now trying to expedite the appointments to the 46 vacant posts of drug inspectors.
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On the advice of the government, the public service commission has completed the process of written tests and the shortlists were published. The interview is scheduled for next week.
He said in another one month, all the posts of drug inspectors will be filled up. The sanctioned post of DIs is only 146 and currently the department is functioning with only 100 inspectors.
As regards assistant drug controllers, the DCA presently functions with 15 ADCs and the number of senior drug inspectors is also 15.
However, there is the allegation that the staff shortage in the drugs control department has crippled its functioning and continuous pressure on the government by the higher officials forced it to direct the PSC to conduct the written examination and interview immediately.
As per Hathi Committee report of 1975, the number of drug inspectors required for Tamil Nadu DCA will come around 215.
At present the number of DIs is 100. The last appointment of drug inspectors, for 16 posts, was held in the year 2016. Whereas in 2012 the government had filled up 90 posts of drug inspectors.
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