Telangana merges Food Safety, Drugs Control departments to create unified body

Hyderabad, Aug 16 (IANS) The Telangana government has decided to merge the Food Safety Department and Drugs Control Department under a unified administration called TG SAFE – Telangana Standards Authority for Food and Essential Drugs.

The Health, Medical & Family Welfare Department has issued a Government Order (GO), creating the new body.

According to the GO, the unified administration shall preserve the statutory provisions under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. The respective statutory authorities and officers shall continue to exercise their powers independently in accordance with the relevant enactments.

IPS officer Avinash Mohanty, who was earlier posted as Director General, Drugs Control Administration, Telangana, has been posted as Commissioner of TG SAFE. The General Administration Department issued a separate GO for this.

According to the GO issued by the Health, Medical & Family Welfare Department, with the increasing volume of licensed food business operations in Telangana, there is a need to strengthen compliance and enforcement under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, to prevent unsafe, spurious and substandard food and drugs and protect public health.

The Food Safety Department, functioning under the Commissioner, Food Safety, and the Drugs Control Department, functioning independently since 1981, regulate food, drugs and cosmetics through licensing, inspection, sampling, testing and enforcement.

A single-line administrative integration of the Food and Drugs Department, augmenting statutory roles and improving coordination, surveillance and regulatory outcomes, has already been successfully adopted in several states across the country.

“The Food Safety Department and the Drugs Control Department share common objectives relating to public health, consumer safety, quality assurance and effective regulatory enforcement. A unified administrative framework is required to improve surveillance, intelligence, enforcement, legal support and regulatory outcomes. Government, after careful examination, now decides to establish a unified administrative structure for the Food Safety Department and the Drugs Control Department,” reads the GO.

Drug administration, food safety, enforcement, legal and prosecution, laboratory, and administrative wings will function under the unified administration.

Considering the emerging diversity in food businesses and drug establishments, the government feels the need for modernisation without an enforcement gap. A State-level committee shall be constituted to review existing mechanisms for implementing the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.

The terms of reference of the committee shall be a comprehensive assessment of unified authority, focusing on systemic modernization, harmonisation of service rules and fixing optimal cadre strength for statutory duties, effective enforcement with testing and legal support, intelligence and data-analysis systems, and infrastructural upgrade for both field units and laboratory services, thus setting up a qualitative and technology-enabled regulatory framework aligned with national and global best practices.

–IANS

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