The government of Tamil Nadu has appointed M Bhaskaran as the director of the State Drugs Control Department. The office of the chief minister issued the order in this regard on September 29. Bhaskaran took over charge on September 30. Prior to this, he was the joint director in the same department with additional charge of the controlling authority.
With the appointment of Bhaskaran, the state drugs control administration gets a regular director after a period of six years. Due to various hurdles, the Government was giving additional charges to deputy drug controllers till now. The post was lying vacant from April, 2003 following the retirement of the last full time director.
The newly appointed director is a Post Graduate in Pharmacy and having wide experience in the manufacturing side and enforcement of the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. Bhaskaran is the senior most qualified official in the department.
According to the state health secretary, for the last six years the state government was struggling hard to appoint a regular director as there were problems of stipulated qualifications and service periods with regard to senior officials in the department. On one occasion, the government had to take a forward step by promoting an official from the post of assistant drug controller to the post of deputy drug controller, with additional powers of controlling authority, to overcome the non-availability of qualified officials.
As per D&C Act, the controlling authority should be a graduate in Pharmacy or pharmaceutical chemistry or in medicine with specialization in clinical pharmacology or microbiology.