Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Nov 01:
Senior functionaries of “We The Human” a public charitable trust including a number of environmentalists/ food technologists & its office bearers K Y S Manhas (Retd. Principal Secretary Law), Dr. Sadiq Nargal, S. Prem Singh, Ajay Sawhney FCA, Mohinder Kumar Bhagat, Sumil Goyal, Inder Parihar, Mohd. Afzal Baig and Verma addressed a press conference in Press Club Jammu, expressing deep concern over day by day increasing use of poisonous toxic chemicals in Food, milk and milk products by few greedy elements, especially, during on-going festive season. And, worst is the role being played by the enforcement agencies which have adopted indifferent approach and have failed to set up required infrastructural facilities & posting of requisite fully equipped enforcement staff, with food technology backgrounds, on strategic locations including borders of the state with Pakistan, Punjab & Himachal, despite regular monitoring of the J&K High Court since last few years. Food Safety Tribunals are not fully equipped with requisite manpower despite J&K HC directives. Only recently, on 4th June 2018, the High Court directed the State Government to comply with the court directions on curbing the food adulteration menace or face appropriate orders.
The Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice M K Hanjura while hearing suo moto proceedings on food adulteration in the State directed the authorities to positively comply with the Court directions passed on February 28 or Court shall be compelled to pass appropriate orders.
“the direction contained in paragraph No. 4 of the order dated 28.02.2018 shall also positively be complied with by or before the next date of hearing, failing which, this Court shall be constrained to pass appropriate orders against the concerned respondents”, the DB directed. Vice Chairman of the trust, K. Y S. Manhas (a retired Principal district & Session Judge) said that notwithstanding with people’s fundamental right to be free from hunger and to consume safe food, free from toxics, pesticides, other micro-biological, chemicals and physical contaminants, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat contain residues of pesticides. Adulteration of food is caused by sand, stone, chalk powder, mineral oil, coal tar, dyes, arsenic, lead, mercury, pesticide residues, larvae in food, rampant use of formalin in fish, infection by rodents, insects in the form of excreta etc. The poor implementation of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 and the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 that created the food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), coupled with law enforcers (food inspectors) and deficiencies in the testing laboratories, lead to persistence of menace of food adulteration. The Legal Metrology Department has kept a criminal silence over non printing of mandatory information on sweet boxes sold by reputed big sweet vendors in Jammu, especially, viz date of manufacturing, date of expiry, composition, colours and preservatives used etc. The such information should mandatorily be printed on all such big sweet vendors who manufacture sweets in big automated workshops. Likewise, big bakers in J&K also indulge in same practice and do not declare the required information, as if we still are living in 15th century and we are the guinea pigs or monkeys for experimentation of adulterated food.
