Guwahati, Aug. 31: The ministry of health and family welfare has decided to take over the State Drugs Testing Laboratory at Panjabari here with effect from October 1 and upgrade it to a regional drug testing laboratory.
An official notification (number J14012/3/94-d.c./d.m.s. & p.f.a. Government of India dated 20/8/2002) issued to this effect said henceforth the State Drug Testing Laboratory will function as a subordinate office of the ministry of health and will be renamed as Regional Drug Testing Laboratory.
This was disclosed by Partho Jyoti Gogoi, government analyst, State Drug Testing Laboratory, who has been appointed by the Centre as the officer-in-charge of the regional laboratory. Gogoi told The Telegraph that of the three state drug testing laboratories in Guwahati, Chandigarh and Hyderabad, the ministry decided to take over the laboratory in Guwahati as the other two laboratories are not adequately equipped with adequate infrastructure.
Sources said Union health minister Shatrughan Sinha is likely to announce a formal takeover of the laboratory by the ministry at a function here on October 1.
The laboratory will cater to the needs of all the northeastern states, including Sikkim, for statutory testing of drugs and pharmaceuticals.
The laboratory was established in 1977, but it started functioning in 1991. It was almost defunct till 1991 due to shortage of manpower and infrastructure.
The laboratory is housed in a two-storied building on 1.7 acres surrounded by a boundary wall. The building was constructed in 1980 with financial assistance from the North Eastern Council to set up a combined food and drugs laboratory.
Tripura militants
Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar has criticised tribal militant outfits for impeding development work in the state’s interior areas, reports our Agartala correspondent.
Sarkar was addressing a gathering after inaugurating the country’s largest bio-mass power project at Kshetricherra in Longtarai valley subdivision of Dhalai district. The project can generate one MW of power from bio-mass and will partially resolve the acute power crisis in Longtarai valley subdivision .
Sarkar said soon after coming to power, the fourth Left Front government had announced a large number of development schemes for tribal people in the interior areas of the state. But “much of this could not be implemented because of the reign of terror unleashed by militant outfits”.
Unemployed engineers: The unemployment problem has assumed alarming proportions in Tripura.
This was evident when chief minister Manik Sarkar told the Assembly that 1,317 engineers were unemployed in the state but there were only 701 vacant posts in different departments.
Assembly nominations: AICC president Sonia Gandhi will take the final decision on nomination of Congress-INPT candidates for the Assembly polls.
This was stated by AICC general secretary Mani Shankar Aiyar in his discussion with the leaders of INPT yesterday.
