Even after one year of the creation of a separate department for Ayurveda in Kerala, the government has not so far created a post of Drugs Controller to head the department in the state.

Concerned over the government apathy, the department, which has been operating separately from September 9 last year, has asked the government to consider seriously the creation of a post of drugs controller for its smooth functioning.

The proposal demands increase in staff strength and strengthening of working facilities whose shortages often become bottleneck to enforce Drugs & Cosmetics Act (D&C Act) properly in the state, according to the deputy drugs controller in charge of the department. Technical staffs are required in the quality control lab also.

According to Dr N Vimala, the in-charge drugs controller, the department has submitted a separate proposal to the Ayush department with projects for strengthening the Quality Control Lab.

When the news about the proposal by the Ayurveda division was put to the state health minister Adoor Prakash, he said he will look into the matter seriously.

Kerala, hailed as the hub of Ayurveda, has more than 1200 licensed manufacturing units and a host of retail outlets. The apathy of the government badly affects the functioning of the manufacturing industry. In all the three zonal offices, the issue of all licences is getting delayed due to heavy work load and several other reasons. The poor situation of the department makes huge revenue loss to the government.

Previously, the head office was working in a separate portion in the state drugs control department office, but after the formation it was shifted into a separate building. The proposal to the government, which was made on 21.10.2011, demands for, in addition to the existing, one Drugs Controller, one ADC and 7 drug inspectors.  At present, the department enforces the Act with just three drug inspectors one each in Kozhikode, Kochi and Kollam. When the Kollam zonal office has a jurisdiction of three districts including it, the other two offices have five districts each. In these two zones alone, more than 800 manufacturing units are operating and many of them are having popular products with decades' old tradition.

Dr Vimala said the government will soon sanction three vehicles for three zonal offices and appoint one driver for the vehicle in the head office. She said for the effective monitoring of the units, at least 10 drug inspectors are required in all the zones.