City awaits food safety officers

One aspect of city's development that needs serious attention is regulation of food establishments. Both permanent and temporary. Eateries, particularly that are mobile and do business on roadsides, need more attention because they do not have a permanent establishment, take no licence and work in a very compromising environment.But at present there is none to regulate them in the city as the food safety officers (FSO) are yet to assume charge.As per ‘The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006', there ought to be FSOs, who will licence, inspect, regulate and punish violating establishments. The rural parts of the district will have 12 FSOs and the urban areas 18. Fifteen of those will work in the Coimbatore Corporation area (city), two in Pollachi Municipality and one in Mettupalayam Municipality.The 15 are yet to assume charge, says R. Kathiravan, who has been identified the designated officer to implement the Act in the district.“I am given to understand that the 15 persons, working in various local bodies, are yet to be relived of their present responsibilities by the authority concerned,” he says.

The persons identified for working in the city are K. Chandran, P. Dhanapalan, R. Govindarajan, P. Paramasivam, R. Ramachandran, S. Zahir Hussain, D. Solavallan, M. Venkatesh, S.R. Gerald Sathiya Punithan, V. Madhanmohan, S. Veluchamy, K. Suruli, A. Ramakrishnan, S. Rajendran and R. Saravanaprabhu.Of those Mr. Chandran, Mr. Dhanapalan, Mr. Govindarajan, Mr. Paramasivam, Mr. Ramachandran and Mr. Hussain work with the Coimbatore Corporation.Corporation Commissioner T.K. Ponnusamy says that the Corporation is yet to take a view on relieving the six persons, working as sanitary officers, as they are on election duty. The six have been given responsibilities to manage a few of the 63 election zones. The same holds good for the nine officers who will join them as FSOs in the city.Once the 15 assume office, the process of identifying the food establishments in the city will begin, says Dr. Kathiravan. The law, however, is unclear on mobile units. Once the officers take charge, he will take a call on making such mobile establishments accountable.His office may even work in co-ordination with the local body concerned for concerted efforts, he adds.The Act provides for punishment up to Rs. 5 lakh and imprisonment up to three years for establishments that do not confirm to the safety provisions. The Government of India enacted the legislation on August 23, 2006.

source: thehindu.com