BENGALURU: Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said on Monday that all medicines under the Department of Ayush, including those in Ayurvedic, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy streams, will now be brought under the drugs control wing of the Food Safety and Drug Administration (FDA).
Addressing reporters here, he said this is specifically to improve the quality of traditional medicines.
He said the Health Department has reduced the time it took to recall substandard medicines from the market. Earlier, once a drug was flagged as Not of Standard Quality (NSQ), it could take up to 30 days to take it back from pharmacies and distributors. Now, that time has been cut to just two days.
Rao said this is crucial because such medicines, if left on shelves, may continue to be taken by patients, posing serious health risks. In June alone, drugs worth Rs 40.48 lakh that did not meet the safety standards were recalled and seized across the state.
The department noted that in July, 1,433 drug samples were analysed by laboratories in Bengaluru, Hubballi and Ballari. Of them, 67 were found to be substandard with the department filing 29 cases. A special enforcement drive was held on June 24 and 25, during which 279 inspections were conducted at drug stores across the state. During the drive, 231 show cause notices were issued to offending establishments. In all, 15 compliance notices were served, Rao said.
On digitisation of services, the minister said all applications related to blood centres are now processed through the Online National Drugs Licensing System (ONDLS) portal, with licenses issued exclusively online. In addition, an online platform has been launched to issue Recognised Medical Institution (RMI) certificates required by institutions authorised to handle essential narcotic drugs.
Food samples
In July, 1,557 street food vendors were inspected. Items such as fruits, vegetables, water bottles, bakery products and spice powders were checked. Of them, 406 violated safety norms. Spot fines amounting to Rs 44,500 were collected from the violators. At 186 bus stations across the state, 889 food stalls were inspected. Of them, 206 violated safety norms.
Rao said as part of the drive, the department collected six samples of kebab from Empire Restaurant and all contained banned colours, including Sunset Yellow.
He said the restaurant is now serving kebabs without colours. The minister also urged people to seek good quality food and report cases where they find eateries serving artificially coloured food items.