Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday said that the World Anti-Doping Agency has restored the accreditation of the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL), which was suspended in 2019 because it failed to meet global standards.
"National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) regains the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accreditation," Thakur posted on his official Twitter page.
"Restoration of accreditation is a boost to India's efforts to achieve the highest global standards of excellence in sport. This is the result of untiring efforts by GOI (Government of India)," he added.
India is currently third in the WADA's global list of dope violators led by Russia.
The suspension had prohibited the NDTL from carrying out any anti-doping activities, including all analyses of urine and blood samples.
The NDTL was originally suspended in August 2019 for six months due to non-conformities with the International Standard for Laboratories (ISL), including in relation to the laboratory’s isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/C/IRMS) analytical method.
Last year, the WADA had suspended the accreditation for another six months.
“In February 2020, when the six-month suspension period elapsed and some outstanding non-conformities had not been addressed successfully, WADA’s Laboratory Expert Group (LabEG) recommended the initiation of further disciplinary proceedings against the laboratory. These disciplinary proceedings were carried out by an independent Disciplinary Committee... while the laboratory remained suspended. The disciplinary process is now complete and the second six-month suspension began on July 17, 2020,” said a WADA statement.
(With inputs from PTI)
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