Kerala’s Drugs Control Dept. in the grip of staff shortage
The Hindu
Department has only 47 officials across districts to inspect samples
There are around 25,000 institutions in the State with licence to sell drugs, and the annual sales are worth ₹60,000 crore. The Drugs Control Department, however, has only 47 officials across districts to inspect samples. Staff shortage is reportedly leading to drugs “that are not of standard quality” reaching the market, leaving patients in peril. Also, very few samples of cosmetic drugs that are worth crores of rupees and homeopathic medicines are being tested for quality. A special squad formed under the State Drugs Controller had found in 2017 that the Kerala market was flooded with fake cosmetic products, said functionaries of the Kerala State Drugs Control Enforcement Officers Association. Enforcement officials are also supposed to check and test medicines at government hospitals and railway hospitals, and stores run by veterinary hospitals and the Employees State Insurance Corporation, apart from firms that require a poison licence and a poison permit to handle methyl alcohol, cyanides, and chloral hydrates.A group of 13 men from Dakshin Datta Para village in Nadia district, West Bengal, busy transplanting paddy has been catching the eye of many in Mayildathurai district in recent days. A video clip of the Bengali migrant agricultural workers Singing Hindi and Bengali songs while planting paddy at Nallathukudi village here has gone viral.
Leaders and legislators hailing from Ballari, which is part of the Kalyana Karnataka region, seem to be a source of much political upheaval in Karnataka, going by recent history. This has been the case since the time illegal mining hit national and international headlines in the 2000s and the place gained reputation as “Republic of Ballari”.
The former BJP MLA of Udupi K. Raghupathi Bhat claimed on Saturday that he contesting the Legislative Council elections from South West Graduates’ Constituency as rebel candidate made the saffron party field its party leader C. T. Ravi in the biennial elections to the Legislative Council from the Legislative Assembly.