Amid the death of 22 children in the Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh due to the consumption of contaminated cold syrup manufactured in Tamil Nadu, it has now come to light that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had flagged structural weakness in monitoring by the drug regulator in the DMK-run State.
According to a report by The Indian Express, the CAG in its August 2024 report highlighted that the drug inspectors conducted only 61% of all scheduled inspections and collected only 49% samples for quality testing between 2016-2017 and 2020-2021.
The shortfall in drug tests, failure in strict monitoring and enforcement of quality checks in Tamil Nadu have come under the scanner following the death of 22 children in Madhya Pradesh. The contaminated Coldrif syrup is manufactured by Sresan Pharmaceuticals in Chennai
Officials told The Indian Express that timely inspections, as recommended by the CAG report last year, could have prevented the tragic incident in Madhya Pradesh.
It must be mentioned that the said report was tabled in the Tamil Nadu Vidhan Sabha in December 2024 and pointed out weaknesses in the drug regulatory ecosystem.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India also presented disturbing statistics on drug inspections done in Tamil Nadu.
Reportedly, there was a 34% shortfall in inspections carried out in 2016-2017. In the 2017-2018 period, inspections dropped by a whopping 40%. A similar pattern continued until 2020-2021.
“In the same period, drug inspectors also fell short of targets for collecting samples for testing. In 2016-17, only 9,561 of the 17,280 samples that were to be lifted were collected, a shortfall of 45%; in 2017-18, 8,908 samples were lifted against a target of 17,280, leaving a 48% gap; in 2018-19, 8,988 samples were collected from 19,656 targeted, a 54% shortfall; in 2019-20, 9,011 samples were lifted out of 19,320 targeted, leaving a 53% gap; and in 2020-21, 8,604 samples were collected against a target of 18,816, resulting in a 54% shortfall,” reported The Indian Express.
As per the CAG, there was a 32% vacancy in the drug control department. There were only 344 drug inspectors in the State although the sanctioned strength is 488.
Timely action by the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government on the 2024 CAG report could have averted the death of 22 children in Madhya Pradesh.
