The Tamil Nadu Drug Control Administration (TN DCA) will soon be having a Drug Information Centre (DIC) in its premises in a bid to provide the all-essential details related to the medicines and their availability. The proposed centre is expected to come up in two months time.

Nearly 25 per cent of the work related to the DIC is over and the TN DCA has also been collecting database from various sources so that authentic information is given to the people. The proposed centre will be having all those facilities that are essential to provide information to the people who need their doubts cleared.

"DIC should be equipped to provide information relating to availability of a particular medicine, names of the stockists they have to approach, the doctors to be contacted and also the pharmacological aspect of a drug," said N Selvaraju, Drug Controller (in-charge), Tamil Nadu.

He said that, he did not want the DIC to be a stereotype like in many other states. The centre in Tamil Nadu should be perfect in providing information and that was why the setting up of the information centre is getting delayed.

"There is no point in having a DIC for namesake, it has to function effectively and be able to clear the doubts of people. We are now in the process of building a strong foundation for the process, by collecting all the relevant literature," he said.

Efforts are being taken to have a toll free telephone number in the facility, to which people can call and collect information about drug availability, location of the pharmacy and adverse drug reaction details. The information centre will initially function for 8 hours because of the shortage of manpower.

He said that, there were also plans to provide information online and for this purpose the administration was in the process of purchasing domain sites to provide the service.

Selvaraju, speaking about the raids conducted in the State this year, said that they had managed to prosecute large number of people for the violation of Pharmacy Act and Drug and Cosmetic Act. He said that, all these raids were being conducted despite a shortage of staff. "Nearly 20 posts are lying vacant and we are taking steps to fill them up soon. They staff will be appointed through the TNPSC exams," he said.