Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe, in the limelight for his sweeping food-safety crackdown across the State, has said that public health, and not personal popularity, is what matters most to him.
Asked if his celebrity-like status following the aggressive food safety crackdown across the state is a distraction, Mr. Mundhe said, “It is not a distraction. Popularity was never my goal.”
“What matters to me are issues like public health. This is not about Tukaram Mundhe. This is about India and the goal to improve public health,” the senior IAS officer told PTI in an interview.
“The food and drugs sector affects public health. If that becomes a public agenda by my actions and role, I will be happy about it,” Mr. Mundhe said. Asked if his aggressive enforcement approach makes him vulnerable to political or administrative pressure, Mr. Mundhe said, “It is not aggressive. I am doing what I am supposed to do diligently. I have been doing this across my two decades of public service.”
“I believe this has to become a public agenda because it is the issue of public health. Citizens at large need to make public health the most important issue,” Mr. Mundhe added.
“We cannot become a superpower if our human resources are not healthy,” he said.
Asked how many establishments have been shut, licenses suspended or cancelled, or criminal cases registered against them since he took charge as the FDA chief in May, Mr. Mundhe said the number of such entities is 12,083.
Improvement notices have been given to 5,269 and suspension orders given to 603 entities, he said.
In case of hotels, restaurant and eateries, there have been 1803 inspections, Mr. Mundhe said. Improvement notices were given in 948 cases and licenses were suspended in 199 cases, he added.
In case of pharmacies, 740 licenses have been cancelled or suspended over various violations during his tenure, said Mundhe, who was appointed as the FDA Commissioner in May 2026, marking the 25th transfer of his 21-year career.
Asked to name the three most common food safety violations in restaurants, Mr. Mundhe said they are hygiene and manufacturing protocols, quality of raw materials and lack of trained manpower.
To a query on the responsibility of online food ordering and delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato to ensure food safety, Mr. Mundhe said, “Basically, they are food business operators as per the law, but they don’t think so. They have godowns. We have taken action against them.”
On the FDA’s notices to Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Tiger Shroff for appearing in an elaichi advertisement, which it suspects is a surrogate promotion for a banned paan ad, Mr. Mundhe said two of them have responded so far.
“There is still time left of the 30-day period given to them to respond, he added.
On the Bombay High Court criticizing FDA’s handling of the Cipla case, Mr. Mundhe said there was no “procedural mistake” by FDA in the matter.
FDA had cancelled Cipla Pharma’s drug sale licenses due to serious storage and handling irregularities at its Pune unit.
“It was not a procedural mistake. It was a little error,” he said. “My officer went overboard, became too liberal and gave them a last opportunity to be heard. However, that hearing was kept on a public holiday,” he said. “We have reissued the notice and are taking a call on it,” he added.
Asked if there are any plans to change FDA’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) after the court comments, Mundhe said, “We are going as per the law. There is no need to change SOPs. If there are some procedural errors, we take serious cognizance,” he said.
To a query on how serious is the problem of substandard and spurious medicines in Maharashtra, Mundhe said, “It is there, but very difficult to quantify.”
“I have taken a meeting of my officers and told them not to inspect the manufacturing process mechanically. You need to focus on process audit. Good distribution practices is a big issue and many of them (manufacturers) do not follow it. So, we are focusing on that also,” Mr. Mundhe said.
Asked if online pharmacies and medicine delivery platforms face the same level of scrutiny as physical pharmacies, Mr. Mundhe said, “They do. Selling online is not prohibited presently, but they have to follow drug and cosmetic Act and rules.”
Mr. Mundhe also spoke about FDA’s resource requirements. Asked if it has enough manpower and lab equipment to carry out inspections in the entire state, he said, “As of now, I think our labs are sufficient, but we need to enhance the capacity. That is why four labs are being constructed.”
“Our staffing pattern has been processed and submitted to the government. We have created a roadmap and submitted a proposal to the government as per the regulations.
“I would not say there is a manpower shortage because most of the sanctioned posts have been filled, except those of drug inspectors, as the recruitment exam was cancelled,” he said.
The Maharashtra Public Service Commission conducted the examination for recruitment to Drug Inspector (Group-B) posts in the FDA in March, but cancelled it after it found a breach of confidentiality in the examination process. Seven persons have been arrested so far in connection with the question paper leak.
Published – September 06, 2026 12:41 pm IST
