Karnataka drugs control department is expected to have a dedicated enforcement wing which will give more powers to its officers manning the inspections and investigations. The department has submitted a proposal, in this connection, to the State government to seek a separate allocation for the same.

Presently, the department has four officers manning the Blood Bank and Intelligence Wing and one for the DPCO cell. But these officers are not empowered in many areas and therefore we need to strengthen the teams. This will also include providing a 'Secret Fund' on similar lines like the police department, Dr BR Jagashetty, drugs controller, Government of Karnataka told Pharmabiz.

The current enforcement wing is too small and have limited planning powers to oversee a burgeoning drug manufacture, blood bank and pharmacy outlet operation. The team needs to be authorized to exercise powers within a defined legal area of responsibility, he added.

The Maharashtra FDA already has an order from its State Home department calling the police force to support its drug inspector squad. In Karnataka too, we need a similar communiqué from the Home department asking the police not to refuse support when drug inspectors make a request, said the Karnataka drugs controller.

The State drugs controller views that devolving more powers to the inspectorate team will only result in speedy decisions of combing down violations and therefore the government would consider the Enforcement wing proposal at the earliest.

With regards to the two new drugs test labs at Hubli and Bellary, these are expected to be commissioned before the month-end. All the material has been shifted and now the department is looking at redeploying technical and non technical staff to the two locations. To start the tests, each lab will need around eight people for the chemistry section alone.

Supporting the new drug test labs, the State government has also sanctioned 196 posts for both the labs at Hubli and Gulbarga. These will include the entire rung from officers to Group D personnel. For the Bangalore Drug Test Lab alone, there are 52 posts sanctioned for junior chemists, of which 18 are filled and for the remaining 28 personnel, sanction through the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) is in progress.

From the current, 3,500 drug samples being tested annually, the two labs and the test facility in Bangalore with additional personnel will see the samples test capacity increase from the current 3,500 to 15,000 samples annually.