46 manufactures booked in two years

Hyderabad: The Department of Medical and Health booked criminal cases against 43 companies for manufacturing ‘substandard quality drugs’ and three others for manufacturing ‘spurious drugs’ during 2015 and 2016.

Replying during the Question Hour in Legislative Council, Minister for Medical and Health C Laxma Reddy informed that during the inspections in the last two years, 8,293 drug samples were lifted by drugs inspectors in the State.

Out of which 46 samples (0.005 %) were declared as ‘not of standard quality’.

However, he said that no ‘misbranded drugs’ were found amongst the samples.

“The cases are pending for trail in concerned courts,” he informed.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) member M S Prabhakar who raised the question alleged that the Department of Drug Control was proving ineffective in controlling the growing menace.

He held that the government should come up with some ‘tracking mechanism’ so that the spurious drugs are controlled at the manufacturing level.

He also felt that the government should follow the model of Tamil Nadu, where government was providing a concession of 15 percent at its retail stores.

On the issue of increased gutka sales, the Minister assured that a committee would be formed by roping in officials from various concerned departments shortly for effective implementation of the prohibition on gutka and pan masala.

While acknowledging that the products were available in loose, he said there were sporadic incidents of selling.

“All over the State, a total of 545 cases were booked for sale of gutka and pan masala in violation of the prohibition orders and total amount of Rs 50 lakh fine was imposed by Adjudicating Officer and Joint Collector of the District as per provisions laid down under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006,” he informed.

Deputy Floor Leader of Congress Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy who had raised the issue pointed out that currently the industry was making Rs 100 crore business in twin cities.

He demanded that the government come up with some kind of monitory mechanism to control the menace, which is leading to cancer.