Integrating the Food Safety Wing of the Directorate of Public Health and the Department of Drugs Control Administration, the government of Tamil Nadu has formed ‘Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration’ department (TNFS&DA).
Government has formed the department following the central act, Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and Food Safety and Standard Rules, 2011. As part of the formation, Food and Drug Control Labs will be upgraded and modernized, for which the government has set apart Rs.50 crore.
T N Ramanathan, the present Commissioner of Indian System of Medicine has been made the first Commissioner of the TNFS&DA. Government has notified the formation of the department and the appointment of the Commissioner recently.
According to sources in the health department, the government formed the department after studying the systems in force in Maharashtra and Gujarat. It felt the need to form the department because of a series of health related incidents occurred in the last three years due to sale of adulterated and expired food products as well as expired drugs.
In 2010, a major expired drug racket was busted by the drug control administration in collaboration with the police department. So, the government on July 21, 2010 constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the former civil service commissioner, with director of public health, director of drugs control, and certain other senior health department officials as members. The committee submitted its report on December 23, 2010 to the government.
According to the recommendation of the committee, the government has brought the Food Safety Wing of the Directorate of Public Health and the Drugs Control Administration under one umbrella and formed the TNFS & DA department. However the two departments will function under two different Acts. The drug controlling authority under the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945 will act as the Director of the DCA under the newly formed department. The new department will function under the administrative control of Health & Family Welfare Department.
With the creation of TNFS & DA, government has given sanction for the creation of additional posts of one Additional Director in the drugs control administration for the formation of a new zone IV in Chennai, five senior drug inspectors, 42 drug inspectors, one system analyst and 3 data entry operators for strengthening the department of drugs control administration.
In addition to this, for strengthening the existing drug testing laboratory, the government will create three posts of senior analysts, two posts of lab technicians and three lab attendants.
The government formed the department despite opposition from certain quarters for integrating the drugs control administration with the food safety wing. A former director of Tamil Nadu drugs control has filed a case with the Madras High Court against throwing away the independent stance of the drugs control department.