Punjab Health Minister hands over appointment letters to 11 drugs controller officers

To further improve the functioning of Punjab's Food and Drug Administration Department (FDA), Health Minster Balbir Singh Sidhu on Wednesday handed over the appointment letters to 11 drugs controller officers.

"Punjab government has celebrated the New Year by appointing youngsters on the important posts. The FDA has already 48 drugs controller officers in place and now the strength would go up to 60 sanctioned posts," said Sidhu.

He said the FDA is conducting the regular inspection of wholesale and retail sale drugs licenses across the state with a view to keep a tab on the illegal sale of habit forming drugs.

"Now with the recruitment of these 11 drugs controller officers, the FDA would expedite the action against the chemists who are indulging in unethical trading of drugs and further the quality of medicines available in the market will also improve," he said.

The Minister further said that to reduce the pendency of analysis of samples at CEL (Chemical Examiner Lab) in Kharar, five analysts and four MLTs have also inducted in the department.

Sidhu also said that around 4,000 recruitments of medical and paramedical and other clerical and ministerial staff had been made in the department, which has resulted in extensive improvement in government hospital performance.

The Minister added that the Union Government had given the target to Punjab for converting the 2,950 sub-centres into health and wellness centres by 2023 while with the tireless efforts of Punjab government it would be achieved by 2021.

He informed that advertisement to recruit 1,000 community health officers (CHOs) has been issued and about 928 CHOs have already been inducted so far.

"690 more CHOs would be joining at the health and wellness centres till March 2020 after the completion of their professional course," he added.