Between 2016-17 and 2020-21, the drug regulator in Tamil Nadu consistently fell short of its targets, with inspectors conducting about 61% of scheduled drug inspections and collecting roughly 49% of the samples required for quality testing.

These persistent shortfalls — which lay bare structural weaknesses in monitoring and enforcement, and are in focus following the death of 22 children after drinking contaminated cough syrup in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district — were red-flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India last year.

In the wake of the Madhya Pradesh deaths, the doctor in Chhindwara who prescribed the cough syrup and three local drug inspectors have been suspended.

The Centre has also directed “risk-based inspections” to be carried out in 19 manufacturing u

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