Telangana Merges Food Safety, Drugs Control into TG SAFE

IPS officer Avinash Mohanty, who was earlier posted as Director General of the Drugs Control Administration, Telangana, has been appointed Commissioner of TG SAFE. The General Administration Department issued a separate GO for the posting.

The Health Department order noted that with the increasing volume of licensed food business operations in Telangana, there is a need to strengthen compliance and enforcement under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, to prevent unsafe, spurious and substandard food and drugs and to protect public health.

The Food Safety Department, under the Commissioner of Food Safety, and the Drugs Control Department, which has functioned independently since 1981, regulate food, drugs and cosmetics through licensing, inspection, sampling, testing and enforcement. A single-line administrative integration of food and drugs regulation, aimed at improving coordination, surveillance and regulatory outcomes, has already been adopted in several states.

The GO stated that the two departments share common objectives relating to public health, consumer safety, quality assurance and effective regulatory enforcement, and that a unified administrative framework is required to improve surveillance, intelligence, enforcement, legal support and regulatory outcomes. After examination, the government decided to establish the unified structure.

Drug administration, food safety, enforcement, legal and prosecution, laboratory and administrative wings will function under the unified administration. Citing the growing diversity of food businesses and drug establishments, the government said modernisation was needed without creating an enforcement gap.

A state-level committee will be constituted to review existing mechanisms for implementing the two Acts. Its terms of reference include a comprehensive assessment of the unified authority, focusing on systemic modernisation, harmonisation of service rules, optimal cadre strength for statutory duties, effective enforcement with testing and legal support, intelligence and data-analysis systems, and infrastructure upgrades for field units and laboratory services, with the aim of building a technology-enabled regulatory framework aligned with national and global best practices.