Spurious drug trade: UP to reward whistle blowers

In a bid to check sale of spurious drugs, Uttar Pradesh has introduced a 'whistle blower policy' under which those tipping off about such rackets would be rewarded up to Rs 25 lakh.
    
The scheme is aimed at promoting public participation in exposing spurious drug manufacturers and reward people for
providing information which could lead to effectively checking
manufacture and trade of such drugs, an official release said.

"The informer would get either 20 per cent price of the total spurious drugs confiscated or Rs 25 lakh, which ever is less," it said, adding that government employees, including those working in Food and Drug Administration (FDA) department, can also avail benefit of this scheme and earn maximum Rs 30 lakh as prize money in their life time. 

The government has also made laws more stringent by awarding jail-term from 10 years to life imprisonment or a fine of Rs10 lakh to those involved in manufacture of spurious drugs.

The release said that from August 2009 to January 2010, the newly set up FDA department had carried out 720 raids all over the state and arrested 47 people.