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In a major development aimed at restoring regulatory operations, the Health Secretariat of the Pondicherry government has issued a notification appointing Dr V Rajendran, a senior pharmacist at the Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital & Post Graduate Institute, as the temporary licensing authority and controlling authority for the Department of Drugs Control.
Issued under G.O.Ms.No.21 by order of the Lieutenant Governor, the notification authorizes Dr Rajendran to exercise statutory powers under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, across the Union Territory until further orders.
Speaking to Pharmabiz, Dr Rajendran said he will take charge within two days as he was not relieved from his present position. He stated that his immediate focus would be on addressing the backlogged statutory clearances, reviewing pending files, and ensuring that legitimate pharmaceutical manufacturing and trade operations run smoothly without compromising on quality compliance. Under the terms of the government order, he will submit a weekly report to the Health Secretary detailing applications received, licenses issued, and pending regulatory files.
The fresh appointment comes in the wake of severe operational disruption following the recent suspension of Dr E A Anandakrishnan, who was the sole regular drug inspector in the Pondicherry Drugs Control Department and was holding charge as the controlling and licensing authority. The government suspended Dr Anandakrishnan citing prolonged negligence in curbing counterfeit drug networks, following extensive inter-state police crackdowns that uncovered illegal manufacturing units. However, his abrupt removal left the regulatory body completely paralyzed, stalling product approvals, license renewals, and official certifications for local pharmaceutical firms.
Crucially, the regulatory mechanism in Pondicherry is currently operating without any regular drug inspectors on its rolls. Following the suspension of Dr Anandakrishnan, enforcement activities and market surveillance across the region are entirely dependent on three contractual drug inspectors, namely M Anto, S Indumathi, and M Keerthana. While the government had earlier appointed a fourth inspector on contract basis, V Jenifer Anbarasi, her services were terminated sometime back, leaving the entire field enforcement in the hands of three non-regular personnel.
Welcoming the appointment of the new officer, Ramesh Kumar Palani, president of the Pondicherry Drug Manufacturers Association (PDMA), stated that the association welcomes the new drug controller and hopes that the new DC will clear all the pending files related to all licenses. Local industry stakeholders and PDMA had earlier expressed intense concern over the total shutdown of regulatory machinery, emphasizing that legitimate units were suffering while awaiting statutory approvals. Though Dr Rajendran has been vested with full regulatory and licensing powers to clear the administrative bottleneck, the government order explicitly clarifies that his appointment will not confer any administrative or financial powers upon him.
To overcome this division of duties and handle the administrative functions of the department, the government has separated office management from statutory regulatory duties. In a concurrent administrative order, the Chief Secretariat has designated M Kandasamy, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer of Pondicherry, as the Head of Office for the Department of Drugs Control to manage its day-to-day administrative and financial affairs.
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