Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers decides to revive all five units of IDPL
The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers has decided to revive all the five Units of Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL) located at Gurgaon, Chennai, Hyderabad, Muzaffarpur and Rishikesh in a phased manner.
The decision was taken at a high level meeting chaired by Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister of chemicals, Fertilizers and Steel as a follow up action of the recommendations made by the Expert Committee on the revival of IDPL, constituted by the Government earlier. The meeting was also attended by Shri Gurdas Dasgupta, Member of Parliament, besides Senior Officials of the Ministry and Members of the Technical Expert Committee.
At present, the decision regarding revival of IDPL is pending with Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (AAIFR). The previous Government had decided to close down the IDPL and most of the employees has been given voluntary retirement. In a departure from this decision, it was decided to take effective steps to give a new lease of life to IDPL so as to ensure availability of medicines to the poor masses at affordable prices. In this regard the Union Minister appreciated the commendable contributions of IDPL when it came to the forefront to supply Doxycycline to the victims of the recent floods in Mumbai at a very short notice. He also stated that the Government is coming up with a new Pharmaceutical Policy wherein it is proposed to be made mandatory for the Central Government Departments to make purchases of medicines from the Public Sector Undertakings.
.
The work of revival of IDPL and its Units would start immediately from 1st October 2005 and is expected to be completed within a period of two and a half years. It was also decided that Government would inform AAIFR of the decision for revival of IDPL as a whole in the next hearing scheduled to be held on 13th September 2005. Thereafter, a detailed revival package for IDPL would be got approved from the Competent Authority.
In order to ensure timely implementation of the revival process and release of required funds for this purpose, it was decided to form a high level Committee headed by Dr. J.S.Maini, Addl. Secretary and Financial Adviser. Other members of the Committee will be CMD,IDPL, Jt. Secretary, (Chemicals) and Director, National Institute for Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER). It was also decided to appoint NIPER as the external Consultant for the revival process.
It was further decided to release required amount to IDPL so that the work of schedule-M could be implemented. With compliance of Schedule-M, the production of IDPL will meet both national and international standards. At present, three Plants namely Gurgaon,Rishikesh and Chennai are producing medicines to a limited extent while the Chemical Plant at Muzaffarpur and bulk drug and formulation plant at Hyderabad are closed. It was therefore decided to start renovation and upgradation work of the Chemical Plant at Muzaffarpur with immediate effect. Similarly, the work relating to renovation and upgradation of the formulation plant and bulk drug plant at Hyderabad Unit would also start with immediate effect.
SKM:PM
(Release ID :11867)