The AP DCA director, M Venkata Reddy retired on last Wednesday after serving the department for about 29 years. R Ranga Rao, joint director of DCA has been made full additional charge and will be the licensing authority. His candidature as the director is being processed by the government and is to be announced after the elections in the state.

Reddy was instrumental in conducting raids over medical stores in odd hours to ensure that there is proper check on spurious and substandard drugs and made the drugs officers more alert. He initiated a drive to bring in a dress code (white aprons) in the chemist community and maintaining certain standards in stores. He has organized various blood donation and health camps.

He has also made considerable efforts to build and sustain the image of the department. Under his leadership, many district advisory committees were set up which were created with a basic objective to make the department more efficient and connecting the various bodies such as chemist associations, local ministers, industrialists etc. During his tenure, DCA has achieved the distinction of awarding blood bank licenses within four days.

The central government has chosen him as a member of the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) in February 2004. He has been conferred the best drug control officer award for 2003 by the All India Drugs Control Officers' Confederation (AIDCOC). He is the first officer from Andhra Pradesh to have bagged the AIDCOC award.

Reddy joined the DCA in 1975 and he occupied the post of director of the department from May 1, 2003.