Telangana Forms TG SAFE by Merging Food Safety and Drug Control Departments

HYDERABAD — The Telangana government has established the Telangana Standards Authority for Food and Essential Drugs (TG SAFE) by merging the Food Safety and Drugs Control departments, appointing Avinash Mohanty as its Commissioner.

According to an order issued by Health Department Principal Secretary Dr Christina Z Chongthu, the government constituted the unified authority on August 4, and the order came into force on August 15.

TG SAFE will operate through six wings: drug administration, food safety, enforcement, legal and prosecution, laboratory, and administrative. The unified body will oversee licensing, inspections, testing, enforcement, and modernisation of drug and food safety administration throughout Telangana.

The drug administration wing has been assigned to manage licensing, inspection, sampling, testing, investigation, and regulatory functions. Meanwhile, the food safety wing will handle licensing, registration, inspection, sampling, testing, and regulatory enforcement.

Dr Chongthu stated that the enforcement wing will function in coordination with the statutory wings of drug administration and food safety. Its mandate includes augmenting their operations through intelligence gathering, risk-based inspections, and prosecution support, with personnel initially attached from the Police Department. The state police department has been directed to provide adequate personnel to TG SAFE to assist in enforcement actions.

Commissioner Mohanty has been tasked with commencing unified operations initially within the CURE Region. The government prioritised this area because of its high concentration of food business operators and pharmaceutical establishments.

In addition, TG SAFE has been instructed to constitute a state-level committee focused on the modernisation of food safety and drug control administration, taking into account the growing diversity in food businesses and drug establishments. The committee will provide recommendations and focus on operational outcomes and gains resulting from the implementation of TG SAFE in the CURE Region.