CS gives 2 month deadline to start food testing lab in Doon
Taking serious cognizance of the cases of delay in the cases filed for adjudication in relation to food safety, Chief Secretary Mrs. Radha Raturi has directed the Adjudicating Officer/District Magistrate/ADM to hear the cases promptly. She has also directed strict action against the responsible officers in case of non-compliance of the instructions on time. In this regard, a letter is being sent by the Chief Secretary to the District Magistrates. In the meeting of the State Level Advisory Committee constituted on safe food and healthy diet in the Secretariat, she summoned a report from the Health, Education, Food Supply and Police Department on the increasing number of cases due to delay in disposal of cases filed for adjudication under Section 68 of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 Rule 2011 and the adverse effect on enforcement work due to this. The Chief Secretary has directed to conduct special campaigns during festivals for testing milk, sweets and other food products and take strict action against the culprits involved in adulteration.
Uttarahand Chief Secretary Mrs. Radha Raturi has given a deadline of 2 months to the officials to start the operation of Garhwal Mandal’s food testing lab in Dehradun. The process of notification of this Garhwal Mandal food testing lab is in progress. The state government has approved 13 posts for this. A proposal of 23 crores has been sent to the Government of India in this regard. Initially, the capacity of this lab will be 5000 sampling tests. Along with this, the Chief Secretary has given instructions to complete the work of setting up an ultra modern microbiological food lab in Rudrapur and availability of modern equipment in the lab as soon as possible. The state government has also approved 8 posts on contract basis for the operation of the Food Safety on Wheels program. The Chief Secretary has given instructions to increase testing as much as possible in the state and prepare the testing reports in a timely manner. He has also given instructions to train Bhojanmatas and Anganwadi workers in food testing. Along with this, the Chief Secretary has directed the Education Department to increase awareness regarding food safety in all residential schools. He has directed to provide information about food safety to the candidates during the training of hotel management. The CS has also given instructions to provide sample testing kits to the general public.
A letter is being sent by Chief Secretary Mrs. Radha Raturi to the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh with a view to conducting joint monitoring and enforcement work of adulterated milk and milk and food products in the districts located on the border of Uttarakhand in the state of Uttar Pradesh. She has given instructions for joint enforcement action in this regard.
The Chief Secretary has given instructions to include all schools, colleges, universities, government and non-government campuses in the Eat Right Campus / Eat Right School certification under the Eat Right India campaign. So far, Uttarakhand Secretariat is the first campus in the state to have received the certification of Eat Right India by the FDA.
It was informed in the meeting that additional food safety officers have been deployed to check the food items being sold at the establishments of food traders on the Char Dham Yatra route and to stop the sale of adulterated food items. 1418 food establishments were inspected. 190 legal and 519 surveillance samples have been taken for testing. Cases have been filed in the court against 20 food traders and the court has imposed a fine of Rs 3,30,000 on 09 food traders. On the Char Dham Yatra route, through the mobile food analysis laboratory, on-the-spot testing/training/public awareness program of the material provided by the general public and food traders is being run, under which on-the-spot surveillance testing of 601 food items was done, out of which 529 food items were found correct in the test and 72 were found not as per the standards. To run the said program effectively, permission has been received for deployment of technical staff through outsourcing for operation of 02 new mobile food analysis laboratories and the process of filling the posts is in progress.
Intensive checking campaign is being conducted on the entry routes of the state by the officers of Food Safety and Vigilance cum Intelligence Unit working under Food Safety and Drug Administration Uttarakhand.
Intensive enforcement action is being taken during Chardham Yatra/tourist season by forming a team of Food Safety and Vigilance cum Intelligence officers by the Food Safety Commissioner.
In order to ensure effective advocacy of cases pending in various courts regarding adulteration in food items through APO, the district designated officers have been directed to place the case before the District Level Advisory Committee.
A request letter has been sent to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, New Delhi for providing training to the Adjudicating Officer/ADM who dispose of various cases filed under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006.
In relation to food safety, the registration process of complaints/information received by the general public on the departmental helpline has been auto digitized and the helpline number 18001804246 is being made operational 24×7 and the toll free number is being widely publicized through IEC.
Taking support from the industry, the process of providing Fostech training to 1200 street vendors on the Chardham Yatra route under CSR Fund is underway. Fostech training has been started for street food vendors in Dehradun district with the support of Nestle India and the process of providing Fostech training in Rudraprayag, Pauri, Chamoli, Uttarkashi and Tehri districts is underway.
