CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy: Drug Control Authority to be strengthened

Amaravati: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said that Drug Control Authority (DCA) should be strengthened and fake medicines should be weeded out in the interest of public health.

During a review meeting held here on Monday, the Chief Minister said that labs should be strengthened, Vigilance and Intelligence Wing should be started and defaulters should be penalised.

The state government should take tough action against the manufacturing and marketing of fake drugs besides strengthening the drug control authority with better infrastructure and manpower.

The Chief Minister took a serious note of fake drugs and ordered the officials to develop an action plan within a month for starting 'Drug Control Vigilance and Intelligence' wing.

The Chief Minister instructed the officials to increase the testing capacity in the labs of Vijayawada, Kurnool, and Visakhapatnam, where almost 13,000 samples can be tested. In addition to this, the Chief Minister also directed the officials to lay special focus on conducting periodical inspections on the 34,000 drug stores across the state and also put a display showing the details of 'how to lodge a complaint' at every outlet and store all the complaints received in a digital database.

Director general of drugs and copyright Ravi Shankar Narayan, special chief secretary K S Jawahar Reddy said other officials participated in the meeting.