Hundred year old Pasteur Institute of India (PII), the vaccine manufacturing company at Coonoor in the Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu, is unlikely to resume production even if the other two Institutes are given permission to commence operations by the DCGI after a re-inspection.

According to sources, the other two vaccine manufacturing Institutes, the BCG Lab in Chennai and the CRI in Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh, have taken remedial measures for the deficiencies noted by the Central authority's inspection team in August 2007 and in January 2008.

But, in Coonoor since the friction between the Director of the Institute and the staff is continuing and is getting worse day by day making it impossible to carry out corrective measures. Getting back the manufacturing license, therefore, seems to be not easy in the near future.

Dr. Elangeswaran, the full time Director of the PII, is currently on additional charge as the Director of the BCG Lab in Chennai, has now stopped visiting his office at Coonoor from September 21 last year following an alleged assault on him by some agitated staff of the Institute. Since the case is now sub judice, no one from the Pasteur Institute is willing to comment. But according to Dr.Elangeswaran, he does not want to work there until he gets proper justice.

With the plan of establishing a Vaccine Park at Chengalpattu near Chennai, the Union Ministry of Health has cancelled the licences of the three vaccine manufacturing PSUs.

The DCGI, who is also the Central Licensing Approving Authority (CLAA), had constituted a GMP assessment committee to conduct inspections in all the three institutes. After the inspection, the BCG Lab and the CRI have started rectifications of their facilities but the position of PII at Coonoor has reached in a stalemate.

When contacted, an officer from PII said that it is because of the arrogant nature of the director, no renovation work is carried out at the institute. "He is the full time director of this Institute. But for the last six months he is not coming here. He is sitting in BCG Lab only, where he has been given only an additional charge. Sufficient funds and manpower are here and the Union health ministry is ready to provide everything. But who is the concerned authority to do all these? It is the director himself", the officer said.

In response to this, Dr. Elangeswaran said that his duty was to guide them only. "I have sent four letters to the Institute asking them to send me a proposal for renovation work and other corrections required there. But no reply has been given so far. They say they don't want me. Then what can I do? I want protection for my life. I want security. If I go there they will beat me up and that had happened earlier," echoed the Director.

To a query why the staffs there assaulted him as he had alleged, Dr. Elangeswaran replied that they felt he was going to shut down the company.

In a report sent to the DCGI and to the Health Ministry by the Director, it was mentioned that a lot of unsavoury events had taken place in the Institute including large scale pilferage of diesel, falsification of accounts by drivers during transportation of vaccine in refrigerated trucks to various parts of the country over the last several years.