Manpower crunch hurdle in implementing food act

Jharkhand: The state government may have notified the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 & Rules 2011 on Monday with the aim of putting an end to poor quality and adulteration, but the health department is clueless about how the law will be implemented, given the handful of food inspectors it has at its disposal.At present, there are just seven food inspectors in the entire state, against a sanctioned strength of 31.The new law stipulates regular collection of samples and testing of food products available in the market to keep tabs on those indulging in adulteration.Speaking to The Telegraph, state food controller T.P. Burnwal admitted that the department faced a tough challenge.“It’s a daunting task and without food inspectors in place across all districts, the rules will have no meaning at the ground level. In other words, safe food cannot be ensured,” he said.Ironically, officials in the health department did not seem to be aware about how many posts of food inspectors were lying vacant.“The problem is we still don’t know whether the so-called 31 empty posts have cabinet sanction because the concerned file has been missing for a long time. This could be the reason why food inspectors have not been recruited in all these years,” said a senior official, adding that no one was really bothered about adulteration till the law came into effect.To get started, Burnwal said he was drafting a proposal to get food inspectors from Dhanbad’s Mineral Area Development Authority (MADA).“The Assembly cleared the Jharkhand Municipal Act recently, which entails that all municipal bodies will be tagged with common rules. Once the notification happens, this will allow transfer of personnel from one municipal body to another. I’m planning to get 11 food inspectors from MADA who have hardly been doing any work of late. If we can get the inspectors from MADA, the manpower crunch will be resolved to some extent,” Burnwal said.Meanwhile, after Saturday’s raids in Ranchi, the state food controller has directed officials to begin collection of milk and other food samples from other districts as well.The directive was given to the seven food inspectors at a meeting in Ranchi on Tuesday.When contacted, health secretary K.Vidyasagar said appointments of food inspectors cannot be done quickly.“We are trying to work out some way to begin implementing the new rules. For example, we are planning to give civil surgeons additional responsibility of the food inspector’s job,” the health secretary said.

Source:http://www.telegraphindia.com