Staff crunch takes bite out of FDA stings

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of Maharashtra seems to have a perpetual staff crunch. For the last 35 years, while the state’s population has more than doubled, the sanctioned strength of food inspectors has remained stagnant, averaging at 250. Taking into account the exponential growth in the packaged food industry and the mushrooming number of eateries across town, this inadequacy is stunting. Adding to the FDA’s woes is the workload given to officials, thanks to the newly-implemented Food Safety and Standards Regulation, 2011.
Out of 531 sanctioned posts across the state, 27 per cent (146 posts) are vacant. Of the sanctioned posts, 165 are alloted to Pune division and 39 are vacant.

There are a total of 265 posts for food inspectors and 61 are vacant, which explains how toothless the FDA is when it comes to monitoring the quality of food and other products.

Shashikant Kekare, joint commissioner (Food), FDA, said, “Due to the new regulations, the work of issuing licences to food vendors, restaurants and hotels that was earlier the job of the municipal corporations is now our responsibility.However, as we are severely short-staffed, we have four workers of the Pune Municipal Corporation and five from the Pimpri- Chinchwad Municipal Corporation working with us.”

  “For years, the positions of food safety officers, assistant commissioners and clerical personnel are vacant. There are no typewriters, so officers have to do odd jobs too. Now, if officers are busy with clerical work, who will conduct raids and be held responsible for maintaining hygiene” he asked.Dilip Sangat, FDA assistant commissioner (Food), Pune said, “The State’s population is increasing and so is our workload. But there has been no increase in manpower — instead our responsibilities have increased. Not only do we have to issue licences, but reply to RTIs as well. The number of raids have gone down in the last few years. Each food safety officer is supposed to conduct at least 10 raids a month but this is not possible.”

“We want to do things like raiding small vendors, fruit juice vendors, panipuri thelas or nimbupaani walas, which we cannot do as frequently as required, due to this staff crunch. This has an adverse effect on the consumers and their health,” added Sangat. The situation at the Drugs department of the FDA is quite similar.

FDA’s joint commissioner (Drugs) B R Masal said, “We carry out raids based on complaints we receive, but the drives that we want to carry out are stalled due to a staff crunch. We can hardly check pharmacies or keep an eye on the sale of banned drugs.”

Source:http://www.punemirror.in/article