Dehradun: Taking serious cognizance of the cases of delay in cases filed for adjudication in relation to food safety, Chief Secretary Mrs. Radha Raturi has given instructions to the adjudicating officer/District Magistrate/ADM for quick hearing of the cases. She has also given instructions to take strict action against the responsible officers in case of non-compliance of the instructions on time. In this regard, a letter is being sent to the District Magistrates by the Chief Secretary. 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 as a result of delayed 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 those involved in adulteration.
CS 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 Rs 23 crore 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 directed to complete the work of setting up an ultra modern microbiological food lab in Rudrapur and availability of latest 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 in the state as much as possible and prepare the testing reports in a timely manner. He has also given instructions to train the cooks and Anganwadi workers in food testing. Along with this, the Chief Secretary has instructed the Education Department to increase awareness about food safety in all residential schools. He has instructed to provide information about food safety to the candidates during the training of hotel management. The CS has also given instructions to make sample testing kits available to the general public.
With a view to conducting joint monitoring and enforcement work of adulterated milk and milk and food products in the districts situated on the border of Uttarakhand in the state of Uttar Pradesh, a letter is being sent by Chief Secretary Mrs. Radha Raturi to the Chief Secretary 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 Eat Right Campus/Eat Right School certification under Eat Right India Abhiyan. So far, Uttarakhand Secretariat is the first campus in the state to have received the Eat Right India certification 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 Chardham Yatra route, through the mobile food analysis laboratory, on-the-spot inspection/training/public awareness program of the material provided by the general public and food traders is being run, under which on-the-spot surveillance check of 601 food items was done, out of which 529 food items were found correct in the test and 72 were not found to be as per the standards. To run the said program effectively, permission has been received for deployment of technical staff through outsourcing for the 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 promotion action is being taken during the Chardham Yatra / tourist season by the Food Safety Commissioner by forming a team of Food Safety and Vigilance cum Intelligence officers. In order to ensure effective advocacy of cases pending in various courts regarding food adulteration through APO, the district designated officers have been directed to place the cases 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 disposes of various cases filed under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006.
Registration process of complaints/information received on the departmental helpline by the general public regarding food safety
