The central government has attributed the delay in the regularization of the post of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to the procedural hitches related with the recruitment rules of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

In a written reply to Rajya Sabha during the just concluded session, Union Health Minister Sushma Swaraj informed that the post of DCGI became available in January 2002 consequent to the retirement of the incumbent of the post. “Since the post had been upgraded, the post could not be filled up on regular basis as the existing Recruitment Rules (RRs) could not be made operable. The revised RRs have since been referred to the UPSC for approval”, she said.

The government has also sent a proposal to the Department of Personnel & Training for filling up the post on ad-hoc basis. The senior-most officer in the hierarchy is presently looking after the work of the Drugs Controller General of India, she added.

The minister was replying to a starred question posed by Khan Ghufran Zahidi on the reasons for not regularizing the post of the DCGI.