WADA restores NDTL accreditation

Sports Minister reveals the news on his official Twitter page

December 24, 2021 05:15 am | Updated 05:15 am IST - New Delhi

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. File

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. File

Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday said that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has restored the accreditation of the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL), which was suspended in 2019 because of its failure to comply with global standards.

The NDTL is based in the national capital and can resume testing with immediate effect.

“NDTL regains the WADA accreditation,” Thakur posted on his official Twitter page.

Big boost

“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 the Government of India,” he added.

India is currently third in the WADA’s global list of dope violators, led by Russia.

“Last week in Parliament, we introduced ‘The National Anti-Doping Bill 2021’, which is another step in India’s quest to become a sporting powerhouse,” Thakur said, referring to the legislation which give the NADA powers to conduct raids to nab dope offenders.

The suspension of the NDTL had prohibited it from carrying out any anti-doping activities, including all analysis of urine and blood samples.

“NDTL has made rapid strides, and now its facilities are fully geared to be at par with the WADA-accredited labs across the globe,” read a statement from the sports ministry.

The WADA first suspended NDTL in August 2019 for a period of six months and extended the de-recognition period after its inspections showed that non-conformities existed.

During the suspension period, urine samples collected by NADA were being sent primarily to the WADA-accredited lab in Doha.

The process had made the anti-doping programme very expensive for the country because of the significant cost involved in sending samples abroad.

Because of the suspension, NDTL could not carry out any testing before Tokyo Olympics in this year.

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