KOCHI: The first regional drug testing laboratory in Ernakulam, opened last year, is yet to become fully functional as the government has not provided the required analysts and staff.
The analysts currently posted in the facility, inaugurated in December 2013, are those who have been deputed from the Drug Testing Lab in Thiruvananthapuram.
The lab is now functioning with five analysts in place of the required 12. Apart from the analysts, there is also a dearth of administrative staff.
Confirming that technical staff are yet to be appointed at the regional laboratory, Drugs Controller P Hariprasad said: ‘‘Clerical staff have been appointed but analysts are yet to be posted. The analysts at the lab are on deputation from Thiruvananthapuram Lab. The PSC list of analysts to be appointed has come out recently and I hope that the government will appoint them at the earliest.’’
The government had decided to set up the regional drug testing laboratory after it was found that the lone laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram could not handle the bulk samples send for testing from all over the state. Around 4,800 samples are collected every month from the market for testing but the laboratory in
Thiruvananthapuram has the facility to check only a minimal number. Sources said that the department was not going to achieve the target of testing the maximum number of samples if the government was moving at this pace.
‘’The present analysts posted at the lab are from Thiruvananthapuram. The government should appoint new analysts at the lab if the target has to be achieved,’’ they said.
Hariprasad, however, said that sample testing was going on at the laboratory for the last three months.
‘‘We just conduct about 25 tests per month now. Once the lab is fully operational, we hope to do at least 2,500 tests a year,’’ he said and added that the lab would be fully functional in a few months’ time.
The inauguration of the facility was delayed as the government failed to sanction the required posts.
Though the Drugs Control Department had recommended 79 posts for the regional drug testing laboratory, the government sanctioned only 30 posts.