The new state licensing authority (SLA) for Ayush in Kerala, Dr. TD Sreekumar, said all the applications pending with his office for grant and renewal of licenses will be cleared in the next two months time although it is a gigantic task. Dr. Sreekumar, formerly Head of Department of R&D at the Government Ayurveda Medical College at Thrippunithura in Ernakulam district took charge as the SLA last week.
 
The government has deputed him to the drugs control department as Deputy Drugs Controller in charge of Ayush. However, the administration of the Ayush DC is under the control of the state drugs control administration (allopathy).
 
Speaking to Pharmabiz, Dr. Sreekumar said, as the new SLA of the department he has a herculean task ahead in clearing all the applications  pending with the office for the last one year. With the support and coordination of the senior officers and other staff, all the work for completing the process will be carried out within next two months time. According to him, there is huge backlog of applications seeking fresh licenses, renewals, loan licensing, GMP..etc, which are all pending.
 
The post of SLA at the state Ayush department was lying vacant for the last one year and it stalled all the office work on licensing. No new licence was granted in the last 12 months from May 2017. The year long stalemate ended on May 18 this year when the government appointed a new licensing authority.
 
Dr. Sreekumar said as soon as the official process on each application is completed, the applicant will be intimated over telephone and he can come to the office to collect the licence. Priority is given for applications for grant of fresh licence. Eighty two applications have been filed by various industrial units for fresh manufacturing licences.
 
The new SLA has a plan to make complete computerization and online communication facilities in all the offices of the department in order to maintain transparency and speedy functioning of the offices. He said the department has sufficient funds from the central ayush ministry and it will be used for various developmental projects. The high tech facilities would also help the department to become more people friendly, especially with those in the industry who could reduce their travel cost, better use of time and speed up operations.