Karnataka DC Dept Links 12 Sakala Services To Seva Sindhu Portal

Bengaluru, 27 May 2019: The Karnataka drugs control department is now aggressively working to ensure that 12 of the 15 Sakala services related to pharmaceutical certifications will now be able to take the online route. It will be made available on the Seva Sindhu portal coming under the ambit of the Directorate of Electronic Delivery of Citizens Services, under the aegis of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms' e: governance arm. This will be effective from June 1, 2019.

While Sakala guarantees services to the citizens with a stipulated time limit, the Seva Sindhu is also an initiative of the government to deliver services in a secure and easily accessible manner to the citizens.

The 12 services identified for the Seva Sindhu portal are WHO certificate, Market standing certificate, GMP certificate as per Schedule M, No conviction certificate, Production capacity certificate, Validity license certificate, Issue of manufacturing and marketing certificate, Quality and capacity certificate, Performance certificate, Installation and registration/products certificate, Certificate of Pharmaceutical Products (COPP) and Good Laboratory Practices certificate. 

There will be no physical interference on the submissions and these will be transferred to the DigiLocker which is the national Digital Locker System launched by government of India for people to open any time to trace and track their submitted applications. According to the drugs control department, Karnataka is the first state to implement this facility for the pharma sector.

“The move is in a bid to bring in the much needed transparency, efficiency and speedy certificate disbursement service to the pharma companies in our State,” Amaresh Tumbagi, Karnataka drugs controller, told Pharmabiz.

The Sakala services mandate designated officers in the drugs control department to carry out the services within a stipulated timeline of 7 working days. In the case of issue of performance certificate, it is 10 working days and for COPP it is 20 working days. If the assistance to issue any of the certificates is not adhered to, then the pharma and the biotech industry could contact a competent officer from the department of health and family welfare to get the same fulfilled within a duration of 15 days. If this fails, then the industry could move to the appellate authority which needs to provide the approval within 15 days. 

The state government in its communication indicated that the objective is to provide government services in a faceless and paperless manner. It is a step towards provision of cost-effective, accountable and transparent government services to the citizens.

Seva Sindhu provides a hassle free service delivery through reduced turnaround time and minimized visits to avail services. The portal also aids the department in simplifying the processes by removing cumbersome and time consuming steps, thereby enhancing the citizen service delivery mechanism, he added. Pharmabiz