Even as the Maharashtra state chemists and druggists association's (MSCDA) has started returning the stocks of Indian system of medicines (ISM) for failure to comply with the Packaging Commodities Rules, 1977, there is no initiative on the part of the Union consumer affairs ministry to solve the issue which has been hanging fire for a long time now.

"The issue is not in the active consideration of the ministry at present," a senior official in the ministry said. The inter-ministerial committee, which was formed by the government to find amicable solution to the issue, did not make any headway on this long pending issue as the committee did not have the terms of reference in this regard. A standing committee of all concerned ministries, including Ayush dept, consumer affairs ministry, etc will be formed and the issue will be referred to the committee, the official said.

That the consumer affairs ministry is not in a hurry in solving the issue is evident from the fact that the ministry has been sitting idle on constituting a standing committee of all concerned ministries for months together.

Now what is to be watched is the attitude of the union health ministry to whom the ISM manufacturers have asked to intervene. With the traders threatening to return their stocks, the manufacturers of ISM medicines have sought the health ministry's intervention to coordinate with the consumer affairs ministry to speed up the proposal of exemption of ASU industry from the provisions of standards of Weights & Measures (Packaging Commodities) Rules 1977. In fact, the Union health ministry had earlier supported the industry's demand and had made recommendations in industry's favour.

Exemption of ISM units from Weights & Measures Rules was a long pending issue and the ISM drug manufacturers had appealed to the union consumer affairs ministry to treat them at par with the allopathic medicines on the packaging issue by exempting them from the amendments to the Standards of Weights & Measures (Packaged Commodities) Rules 1977.

The amendments to this Rules 1977, brought out by the consumer affairs ministry, has put the ASU drug manufacturers in the country in a precarious situation as re-training and informing over 9400 manufacturers and thousands of products and packs are proving to be an arduous task. However, the ministry had exempted the allopathic medicines from the purview of this amendment.