The Kerala State Drug Control Department has submitted a proposal to the State Government stressing the need for a drug information centre in the State. The proposed facility, once approved by the government, will be opened in Trivandrum Medical College and the estimated investment for the facility would be around Rs 40 lakh.

"The problem persisting in Kerala is that no one has proper knowledge of medicines. Around 75 per cent of the drugs used are unnecessary or irrelevant for respective ailments. So, it is essential to educate people on the usage of drugs and their negative impacts. A drug information centre will go a long way in educating the doctors, patients and other members of the public in this regard," a drug control department source said.

Speaking about the Rs 5 crore proposal submitted by the Drug Control Department to the State Government in line with the World Bank funded Rs 100 crore Capacity Building Project, the source said, it was intended for the up gradation and modernization of its current infrastructure and laboratory and the proposal was on the verge of being finalized.

The plan is to totally modernize the building where the department is situated and the laboratory, so that testing can be done more accurately and results can be done faster. The proposal also includes adding more vehicles to the department and conducting Information Communication Education programme for creating awareness about the departmental activities among people.

"As of now there is limited number of vehicles in the department. We at least need one vehicle per district so that we can carry out our monitoring activities in a better way. The computerization of the department is also not completed. We need networking between drug controls departments throughout the state to function in an efficient manner. Presently, we are collecting information about the products from various manufacturers. But if we have access to literature, this won't be needed," sources said.

There are also plans to use the laboratory of the College of Pharmaceutical Studies in Thriuvananthapuram for increasing the sampling work of the department. As of now, they are doing around 4000 sampling and if the college laboratory is also shared, then another 2000 samples can be worked upon. "The college laboratory is a full-fledged one, so if we are able to share it, then it will be beneficial both for the students and our department. So we are working in that angle too," informed the sources.

"This Rs 100 crore has been lying idle for a long time and the Drug Control Department neither sent any proposal for the infrastructure development nor did they show interest towards it. Approximately Rs 2 5 crore has been earmarked for Kerala. It is only now that we have sent the proposal seeking to modernize the laboratory and upgrade the infrastructure," said the source.

The Kerala Drug Control Department has also requested for the posting of a Joint Drug Controller, who would be able to take care of licensing and GMP activities and supervise the awareness programmes being planned by the department.