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Parliamentary panel asks Centre to augment manpower in CDSCO
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Gireesh Babu, New Delhi
December 18 , 2024
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The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilisers has recommended to the government to assess the actual staffing requirement of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) since the existing posts are insufficient to meet the country's regulatory requirements.
The Committee, headed by Lok Sabha Member of Parliament Kirti Jha Azad, in the fifth report presented to Lok Sabha during the current session, also found that almost 60 per cent of the sanctioned strength of drug inspectors, which is 303 out of the total 504 posts, were vacant as on December, 2023.
This is despite the fact that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare way back in the year 2012 recommended hiring people on a short-term contractual basis till the vacancies are filled.
The Committee was apprised that recruitment delays were caused by the Court on matters related to recruitment rules and following its orders from the Supreme Court of India, in this regard steps have now been initiated to expedite the recruitment process.
It may be noted that the ministry of health and family welfare has recently notified the recruitment rules for drug inspectors.
While urging the Department to prioritise filling these vacancies without further delay, the Committee expressed concern that the existing sanctioned strength of 504 posts are insufficient to meet the Country’s regulatory requirements for the medicines/drugs regime more specifically considering the fact that the country has more than 750 districts.
"The Committee, therefore, recommends that the responsible authorities conduct a comprehensive assessment of the actual staffing needs with a holistic vision of increasing the number of sanctioned posts to ensure effective regulation and oversight owing to the multifaceted issues grappling the spurious/NSQ drugs," added the fifth report.
The ministry of health and family welfare, in response to a question in August, this year, has informed the Parliament that the number of sanctioned posts in CDSCO has been significantly increased in the last 10 years.
According to recent news reports, the government plans to recruit 250 more drug enforcement officials in order to strengthen the regulatory mechanism in the wake of growing requirements.
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