The Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has asked the World Bank for direct monetary assistance to the FDA and avoid the involvement of Union Health Ministry while providing funds for further expansion of its drug and food testing laboratory.

Maharashtra FDA commissioner, Dhanraj Khamatkar, said that the FDA has made a request to the World Bank to route the fund directly to the FDA as the World Bank is not happy with the utilisation of World Bank funds by the Union Health Ministry provided under the Food and Drugs Capacity Building Project which was closed by the Bank on June 30 this year. He said that only 40 per cent of the total funds earmarked by the World Bank could be utilized by the Union Health Ministry for various reasons and that too became controversial as there were allegations of corruption in utilizing the funds, especially against the agency, HSCC, which was instrumental in procuring and distributing equipments to different centres.

"Since the World Bank has expressed satisfaction over the utilisation of funds by the Maharashtra FDA, we have asked the Bank to fund directly for further expansion of the drug testing lab," Khamatkar said. Eventhough the two-member World Bank team, which was in Mumbai recently to inspect the implementation and impact of the Capacity Building Project India, did not make any commitment, the response to the FDA's request for further funding was positive, he added.

The FDA wanted World Bank assistance for upgrading the capacity of its drug testing laboratory from the existing 6000 samples a year to 12000 samples a year. It also wanted to upgrade its sterility and microbiology testing facilities. Besides, it also wanted the Bank assistance for upgrading the air-handling units (AHUs).

Senior officials in the FDA said that its request for further assistance may go down well with the World Bank as the Maharashtra FDA is the only state in the country which has utilized all the funds made available to it by the World Bank.