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Ravinder Malik, Chandigarh :
Despite the strict laws and provision of imprisonment along with penalty, During festival season a lot of shopkeepers and sweet shop owners don’t hesitate to produce and sell eatables and beverages of lower and substandard quality for their greed.
It is evident from the data made available by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and out of the total samples taken for lab testing, more than 19 percent were found of substandard and lower quality in Haryana which is a matter of serious concerns requiring the department to take stern action against the defaulter.
The list of samples of eatables included milk made products like sweets, cheez, butter milk and many more and following the lab report, the samples which stand as unfit are most likely to cause health hazards.
As many as 1,130 samples of food and drinking products were taken by the official across the state and out of these, the lab reports a total of 831 samples has been prepared. It is pertinent to mention that as many as 159 samples i.e. 19 percent, were not found upto the standards and failed to meet expectations. The report of 299 samples is yet to come. The whole scenario clearly indicates the Food and Safety Administration wing is required to come up with a foolproof strategy to tighten the noose around those defaulters, mocking at rules and putting the lives of people in danger.
Regarding this, Rajiv Rattan, An IAS and Commissioner, FDA said that the department is leaving no stone unturned to take action against the defaulters and besides, the officials continue to make field visits to in order to have an eye on such elements involved in producing and selling unfit stuff of food and other items.
The data also revealed that maximum failed samples were reported in Gurugram, Jhajjar and Bhiwani. Gurugram emerges on the top position with 25 failed samples followed by Bhiwani and Jhajjar with 15 and14 unfit samples. In continuation to this, Hisar and Sonipat are also among the districts with maximum unfit samples of food.
Aiding by the Food Safety Act, 2006, any person found breaching norms, producing or selling substandard food and beverages is subject to stern as a penalty of Rs. 10 lakh can be imposed on him or given sentence of 6 months or both simultaneously.
Besides, the police is authorised to arrest such elements directly under section 272 and 272 of IPC. It is worth mentioning that even special courts have also been formed for hearing of such cases.
If we look back at what comes out, producing or selling food and beverages if substandard quality is not a new thing as on average more than 10 to 25 samples failed to meet parameters during festival season every year.
Nearly 10 percent samples were found unfit from April to October in 2016-17 to be followed by 18.4 percent and 25.2 percent substandard samples in 2017-18 and 2018-2019. Similarly, about 20 percent samples were reported unfit in next years during the aforesaid period of 6 months.
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