Times
of India: Mumbai: Thursday, 03 September 2015.
In what shows
utter disregard to food safety laws, the food safety wing of the Greater
Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has not cancelled even a single licence
of any food business operator (FBO) in the last one year within city limits
during the period June 2, 2014 to July 31, 2015.
The shocking
disclosure - ironically coming at a time when the nation is celebrating
National Nutrition Week from September 1 to 7 -- was made by the health
department of GHMC in response to an RTI query.
When asked
how many licences of FBOs it had cancelled in the city during the said period
for violating provisions of Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006, the
department admitted in the RTI reply (a copy of which is available with TOI)
saying no licence was cancelled under the FSS Act.
"This
admission is proof enough that the entire food safety wing is least bothered
about the quality of food served by hundreds of hotels, restaurants and fast
food chains to thousands of people every day. That not a single licence was
cancelled also makes it a strong possibility that it is be an intentional act
as the enforcement officials may likely to have some kind of nexus with food
safety violators," reasoned Bakka Judson, the RTI activist who filed the
application.
In fact, what
further deepens the mystery over GHMC's lax attitude over implementation of
food safety laws is the fact that they claimed to have collected 226 food
samples during the one year period, the food safety wing mentioned in the RTI
reply.
The zonal
wise break-up of food samples they collected for testing during June 2, 2014 to
July 31, 2015 includes 58 from East Zone, 51 from Central Zone, 48 North Zone,
40 West Zone and 29 from South Zone.
What's more,
the GHMC's food safety wing claimed that 92 cases pertaining to violations
under FSS Act were under trial stage before courts of law but legal experts
opined that given the working style of functioning of the department, the
chances of getting convictions for the violators in these cases is almost
negligible.
"The
punitive provisions of FSS Act, 2006 is very clear. Not just levying fines on
the defaulters, the authorities can get the food safety violators imprisoned
too besides cancelling their business licences," said C Damodar Reddy,
high court advocate.
In
particular, Damodar Reddy referred to the emergency powers entrusted to the
designated food safety officers under section 34 of FSS Act. "Under this
section, the food safety officers can bypass the need to approach courts of law
to prosecute the defauters if a clear case is made out showing that health risk
condition exists with respect to any food business," he added.
Interestingly,
it is another story that the civic body is represented by five standing
counsels (one for each zone) and 18 standing counsels (one each representing
one circle) at high court and lower courts respectively.
"We do
not have exact information on what food safety violation cases are pending at
what stage and at which courts as they are handled by respective health and
sanitation wing. We merely pass on the court summons and notices," said
Laxmi Prasanna, superintendent, legal cell, GHMC.
Though
attempts to speak to N Ravi Kiran, additional commissioner (health and
sanitation), GHMC, for his comments failed, a food safety officer speaking to
TOI on condition of anonymity, said: "Our hands are tied as we have to
take clearance before conducting any raids. Recently, I was pulled up for
collecting food samples for testing from a multi-national fast food
chain."
Quote:
This admission
is proof enough that the entire food safety wing is least bothered about the
quality of food served by hundreds of hotels, restaurants and fast food chains
to thousands of people every day. That not a single licence was cancelled also
makes it a strong possibility that it is be an intentional act as the
enforcement officials may likely to have some kind of nexus with food safety
violators.
Bakka
Judson, RTI activist
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