The Telangana government has established the Telangana Standards Authority for Food and Essential Drugs (TG SAFE), merging the State's Food Safety and Drugs Control departments into a single administrative body aimed at strengthening surveillance, enforcement and laboratory testing across Telangana. The order constituting the authority was issued in early August and came into force on 15 August 2026, according to a Health Department order signed by Principal Secretary Dr Christina Z Chongthu.
Administration and leadership
Senior IPS officer Avinash Mohanty has been posted as the Commissioner of TG SAFE. Mohanty, who was earlier noted as Director-General of the Drugs Control Administration, will exercise powers under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 as part of his expanded remit. The government order implementing the change is referenced as GO Ms. No. 67.
Structure and initial focus
TG SAFE will be organised into six specialist wings to cover the regulatory lifecycle from licensing to enforcement. The wings are: drug administration, food safety, enforcement, legal and prosecution, laboratory and administrative. The Health Department order directed TG SAFE to commence unified operations first in the CURE region, citing the concentration of food business operators and drug establishments there.
- Enforcement: Police personnel will be attached to TG SAFE to bolster on-ground action and prosecutions.
- Intelligence and data: Provisions are made for common intelligence, legal and data-analysis mechanisms across the new body.
- Modernisation: A state-level committee will review modernisation needs — including cadre strength, testing capacity and legal support — and report on outcomes from the CURE-region pilot.
Functions of the wings
The government order lays out core functions for the drug administration and food safety wings, while the enforcement and legal wings will operate to support statutory activity and prosecutions.
| Wing | Primary functions |
|---|---|
| Drug administration | Licensing, inspection, sampling, testing and investigations |
| Food safety | Licensing, registration, inspection, sampling, testing and enforcement |
| Enforcement | Coordination with drug and food wings, intelligence-led inspections and prosecution support |
| Legal & prosecution | Legal support for cases under relevant Acts and coordination of prosecutions |
| Laboratory | Testing and quality assurance for samples from inspections |
| Administrative | Human resources, finance and logistical support for TG SAFE |
Enforcement resources and coordination
The Health Department order specifically instructs the Police Department to provide adequate personnel to TG SAFE for enforcement tasks. The enforcement wing will be "functioning in coordination with the statutory wings of drug administration and food safety to augment their functioning through intelligence gathering, risk-based inspections, prosecution support," the notice said. The government has asked TG SAFE to develop common laboratory, legal and data-analysis mechanisms to support statewide operations.
Modernisation and review
Recognising the changing profile of food businesses and drug establishments, the government has directed TG SAFE to constitute a state-level committee on the modernisation of food safety and drug control administration. The committee's mandate will include assessing:
- Cadre strength and service rules required for a unified authority;
- Testing and laboratory infrastructure;
- Legal and prosecution capacity;
- Intelligence and data-analysis systems to support risk-based regulation.
The committee will also evaluate the initial implementation in the CURE region and submit recommendations on scaling TG SAFE's model across Telangana.
What this means for consumers and businesses
Officials say the move is intended to tighten surveillance and enforcement against unsafe, spurious or substandard food and drugs by pooling regulatory functions and data. For consumers, a unified authority aims to reduce fragmentation between the two regulatory streams. For food and pharmaceutical businesses, the change will mean dealing with a single administrative structure for licensing, inspections and testing. The precise timelines for statewide rollout beyond the CURE region will follow the committee's recommendations and the initial pilot's findings.
The establishment of TG SAFE marks a notable institutional shift in Telangana's public-health regulatory architecture, aligning inspection, laboratory and legal resources under a single authority while retaining statutory powers conferred by the relevant central Acts. Implementation and resource deployment in the coming months will determine whether the consolidation delivers the intended improvements in safety and enforcement.
