In a bid to bring in the much-needed efficiency, the Karnataka drugs control department has undertaken a reorganization of operations. The reorganization was carried out by the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare to ensure better working practices including transparency and accountability.

Under the strategic reorganization, the Blood Bank Intelligence Wing and Drug Price Control Cell have been merged to form the Regional Office of State Enforcement. There will be five regional offices for Karnataka with 35 Circles. The regional offices are Bangalore, Mysore, Gulbarga, Hubli and Bellary. In fact Bellary has recently opened up a Blood Bank.

Each regional office will now be headed by a Deputy Drugs Controller (DDC) who would be in-charge of all activities of the respective circle. For instance, there are six Circles in Bangalore City attached to three Deputy Drugs Controllers from the headquarters. Now there will be five drug inspectors carrying out the checks. The Regional offices will come under the purview of the Additional Drugs Controller of the State for all intelligence and investigation purposes.

Under the 35 circles, 27 have been created. Mysore will have six circles which will also include Mercara, Chamrajanagar, Hassan, Mangalore and Udupi. Hubli and Bangalore will have a total of 6 circles each. In North Karnataka, Gulbarga will have four circles and Bellary will have five circles. The remaining eight Circles will be supervised by deputy drugs controller, Bangalore.

There will no longer be an exclusive blood bank Intelligence and DPCO cell. The reorganization will bring in much needed efficiency. There regional offices will now be empowered to respond quickly to investigations. The dynamics and operating environment are quite different than in the past, Dr BR Jagashetty, Karnataka drugs controller told Pharmabiz.

These regional offices will also tackle issues coming under the Drugs & Magic Remedies among other inspections related to blood bank norms and violation of drug prices.

So long the entire blood bank Intelligence and DPCO cell was monitored by three DDC and it was becoming impractical. Each of the inspectors have been recommended for a Rs 1000 hike as stipend for working on Intelligence operations.

Further, the drugs control department has also proposed to the State Home department to attach police station to the regional office.

In addition, there is also a request for a full-fledged administrator for the State drugs control department and the candidate could be from the Karnataka Administrative Services (KAS) cadre, stated Dr Jagashetty.