Stepping up its efforts to curb the sale of spurious drugs in the country, the Health Ministry has announced a whistleblower scheme for giving monetary reward to the informers leading to the crackdown on such illicit trade.

People’s participation is imperative and would be a highly effective step in augmenting the efforts of taking on the elements engaged in such illicit trade of spurious drugs. With this aim in view, a scheme has been devised by the Central Government for giving monetary rewards to the whistleblowers who can take risk of providing the information about the perpetrators of such crime. Such scheme is already operational in other enforcement departments of government which pays good dividend also in terms of voluminous catches/seizures, according to official sources.

The reward scheme provides for giving handsome rewards to the informers who provide specific information to the designated authorities leading to the seizures of spurious, adulterated, misbranded and not of standard quality drugs, cosmetics and medical devices. This reward scheme will be applicable to both the informers as well as the officers of the CDSCO. In the fight against the menace of spurious or fake drugs, cost of such social participation will be minimal given the proportion of damage inflicted by the perpetrators of the crime on the health of the society and the economic progress of the country, the government sources explained.

The reward of maximum of upto 20 per cent of the total cost of consignments seized will be payable to the informer/officials which should not in any case exceed Rs 25 Lakh in each case. In respect of an officer of the Government/CDSCO, the reward should not in any case exceed Rs 5 lakh for one case and a maximum of Rs 30 lakh in his/her entire service. With a view to ensure that the informers are not made to wait till the final disposal of the matter, 25 per cent of the amount will be given at the time of filing of the charge sheet in the court of law, as per the scheme.

Further, with a view to ensure that the informers do not turn hostile during the trial of the case and continue to assist the court in deciding the matter in favour of the government, 25 per cent of the amount will be given to them at the time of disposal of the case in favour of the government in the first court of law. The remaining 50 per cent amount will be paid only when the case has been finally disposed of in favour of the Government and no appeal with respect to the matter is pending in any other courts.

The eligibility of the informer and the quantum of cash rewards would be decided by a committee, which will consist of officials from different departments / offices. The Committee will consist of DGHS, director or deputy secretary (drugs) in the ministry, chief controller of accounts in internal fiancé division in the ministry, a representative of the respective zonal / sub-zonal office of CDSCO nominated by DCG(I), drug controller of the concerned state, a representative of NGOs, a legal representative and a representative from the customs department. DCGI or his nominee will be the member secretary.

The Government will engage senior advocates who have sufficient experience of the cases relating to drugs as its counsel in the cases which will be filed before designated or special courts. The DCGI along with other officials will be the nodal authority who will inter alia oversee the functioning of the scheme and the identity of the informer will be kept secret.

On receipt of the information from the whistle blower / informer, the concerned officers will organize immediate and systematic investigation in co-ordination with the State Drugs Control Administration to unearth the spurious drugs racket. As the Licenses are granted by the State Drugs Control Authorities, they will take suitable action like prosecution etc depending upon the evidences available in the case. The details of the investigations will then be forwarded by the concerned zonal / sub-zonal officer to the DCG(I) for the consideration of the committee to decide about the merit of the case for reward and the quantum of reward to be given to the whistle blower / informer, according to the scheme.