After getting the Union Cabinet's seal of approval, the Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Bill, 2005, stipulating stricter penalties like life imprisonment and non-bailable arrest for manufacturing and selling spurious drugs, will be tabled in Parliament in the forthcoming session which is scheduled to begin on October 17.

According to sources, the Union health ministry has made minor changes in the Bill and will be tabled in the coming session of Parliament. The ministry is making all efforts to get the Parliament's seal for the bill in the coming session itself as it is one of the pet issues that the Union health minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss wanted to address. Dr Ramadoss is learnt to be keen to operationalise the bill during the term of this government. The government's term will end in May next year.

Though the extent of spurious drugs in the country is 0.3 per cent as per the government data, the minister is keen to see that this comes to a level of zero per cent by using the Amendment as a major deterrent to unscrupulous drug manufacturers.

The proposed amendment is a landmark move as it stipulates that those caught manufacturing and selling spurious drugs which are likely 'to cause death or harm to the body as would amount to serious hurt, solely on account of such a drug being administered' shall be punishable for a term which shall not be less than 10 years but may extend to imprisonment for life.

The guilty will also be liable to pay a fine which shall not be less than Rs 10 lakh or three times the value of the drugs confiscated, whichever is more. At present, the jail term for those involved in manufacturing and marketing spurious drugs is five years with a fine of Rs 10,000, which usually goes into the state's coffer. As per the new amendment, the fine paid by those found guilty of producing and selling spurious drugs would go to the family of the person who died after consuming the drug and not to the government.

Apart from specifying the relatives who will receive the compensation, the bill also incorporates a provision for creating special courts to undertake speedy trial of drug-related offences. It makes all drug-related offences cognisable and non-bailable.