By IANS
New Delhi : The Sports Ministry has decided to establish an autonomous National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and National Dope Test Laboratory (NDTL) with immediate effect in order to combat the malaise of performance enhancing drugs in sport.
Announcing the fresh initiative, the ministry in a statement said the NADA would function as an advisory body to the government on "policy formulation on anti-doping in sports and as a nodal agency for implementation of programmes relating to anti-doping in the country".
India is a founder member of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), set up in December 2004.
NADA will work closely with the NDTL, which replaces the Dope Control Centre awaiting WADA accreditation before the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune and the 2010 Commonwealth Games here.
The new lab will have an enhanced capacity of testing 5,000 samples a year compared to the less than 2,000 at the moment.
With separate bodies for policy formulation and testing, the burden on the Sports Authority of India (SAI), which currently manages the Dope Control Centre, will be considerably reduced.