Now, target-based appraisal system for Guj drug inspectors

Now even officials in a state government department would have target-based appraisals. The state food and drug regulator has decided to adopt a performance based promotion and appraisal system for its drug inspectors from the current financial year. 

With an aim to improve the performance of drug inspectors, the Food and Drug Control Administration of Gujarat (FDCA), has now decided to appraise officials on the basis of parameters like the number of raids conducted, spurious drugs detected and cases reported successfully in the court and follow-up litigation, also the number of cases detected where manufacturers are flouting Drug Pricing Control Order (DPCO) norms etc, informed a senior official of the FDCA. 

Earlier, the officials at the FDCA were given yearly appraisals based on the quantity of work they reported to have completed, rather than a detailed analysis of the quality of work and efficacy.

Their performance would also be rated based on the amount of work allotted to them and the extent to which they accomplished it, he explained. 

"This is strategic step taken by the FDCA to ensure the efficiency of the enforcement mechanism, discussions were on with the state government since some time now. And a decision has been taken to apply the new system from the current financial year," the official said. 

In order to expedite the process of detection of fake drugs, the Gujarat FDCA has recently decided to come up with a mobile drug testing laboratory for spurious drugs. This will be the first such laboratory in the country, the FDCA claimed. The lab costing Rs 67 lakh would be kept at the FDCA's Gandhinagar office and would be sent to the spot as and when there is any news of spurious drugs from any part of the state. 

The spurious drug testing laboratory comes after the FDCA had already launched a food testing lab last year.

The budget allocation for the FDCA has almost doubled this year to Rs 39 crore, up from around Rs 19-20 crore last year. Meanwhile, the regulator has also sought for funds of around Rs 100 crore from Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for upgradation of infrastructure. 

Gujarat is also the first state in the country to implement an online drug alert system for retailers through short messaging service (SMS).

It recently launched an upgraded version of the system, whereby a consumer can send an sms to the FDCA mentioning the batch number of a particular medicine he has bought and would get an instant reply on whether the drug is fake or not.