Govt blames AIADMK for drug-test failures

The Stalin government has placed responsibility on the previous AIADMK administration for systemic lapses in drug inspection and sample testing flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General, linking those failures to the current Coldrif cough syrup tragedy.

- HD Bureau

Audit data now under scrutiny show that between 2016 and 2021, the state’s drug control department frequently missed targets: in 2016-17, only 66,331 inspections were done against a target of 100,800; by 2020-21 that gap had widened to a 38 per cent shortfall.

Sample collection too lagged, with deficits reaching up to 54 per cent in some years. The current government argues these chronic deficits weakened regulatory oversight long before the Coldrif incident.