Authorities dishonoring directions of High Court
No check over adulteration, quality of food items sold in market
Yash
Khajuria
JAMMU, Jan 27: Courtesy to the overall lethargic approach of the Municipal Corporations, the general health of the people is on risk as the hygiene and quality of the food items been sold in markets is not being checked periodically. Even the direction of High Court is also not being honoured.
As per the recent PIL in J&K high Court regarding implementation of Food Safety Standards Act 2006, and 2011, the court had directed MCs to collect samples of all the eatables from all the shops/ factories on weekly basis and get those tested. The authorities have not even bothered to brace themselves up in the wake of reported Swine Flu cases.
The condition of slaughter houses is very unhygienic. As per data, almost 4 tonnes of mutton was being consumed in Jammu and Kashmir annually whereas alone Kashmir valley consuming 2.5 tonnes of mutton annually. Everyday thousand of sheep were slaughtered to meet food requirements. Despite this the region is without hygienic modern slaughter house. Many butchers continue to slaughter sheep at their own places, thus infections were always a threat.
“With no check on quality of non-vegetarian items whether it is disease free or not, it increases the possibilities of diseases as critical as cancer. If cancer or infected increased body mass can develop in human body, it certainly can develop in any living being. Most of the diseases and numbers of Cancers, these days are directly or indirectly related with unhygienic and unchecked food”, said Dr Dharminder, a Cardiologist serving in Medical College Jammu.
According to sources, to meet the requirement of the customers slaughters house owners feed supplements to the animals, which include highly adulterated feeds.
“Most of the milkmen mix packed milk to meet the demand, at the same time the milk sold in market is also without any checks. It should be made mandatory to get the milk at an organized sector and has to be tested before it goes to open market, whether it is from shop or from milkmen”, Said RTI activist Raman Sharma.
When contacted, Vinod Sharma, Health officer Jammu Municipal Corporation, said that they had appointed four food safety officer in Jammu for inspection at various food establishments to check the quality of food items being sold in the city. They collect minimum of two samples weekly for the lab test, he added.
When asked about the hygiene in the slaughter houses, he replied that they were not penalizing any of the slaughter house in this regard since as per the orders of Central Government, all the slaughter houses were directed to come up with the hygiene and quality of food which is to be sold to the consumers till 4 Feb 2013 and most of the slaughter houses are turned quite hygienic in the corporation area.
JAMMU, Jan 27: Courtesy to the overall lethargic approach of the Municipal Corporations, the general health of the people is on risk as the hygiene and quality of the food items been sold in markets is not being checked periodically. Even the direction of High Court is also not being honoured.
As per the recent PIL in J&K high Court regarding implementation of Food Safety Standards Act 2006, and 2011, the court had directed MCs to collect samples of all the eatables from all the shops/ factories on weekly basis and get those tested. The authorities have not even bothered to brace themselves up in the wake of reported Swine Flu cases.
The condition of slaughter houses is very unhygienic. As per data, almost 4 tonnes of mutton was being consumed in Jammu and Kashmir annually whereas alone Kashmir valley consuming 2.5 tonnes of mutton annually. Everyday thousand of sheep were slaughtered to meet food requirements. Despite this the region is without hygienic modern slaughter house. Many butchers continue to slaughter sheep at their own places, thus infections were always a threat.
“With no check on quality of non-vegetarian items whether it is disease free or not, it increases the possibilities of diseases as critical as cancer. If cancer or infected increased body mass can develop in human body, it certainly can develop in any living being. Most of the diseases and numbers of Cancers, these days are directly or indirectly related with unhygienic and unchecked food”, said Dr Dharminder, a Cardiologist serving in Medical College Jammu.
According to sources, to meet the requirement of the customers slaughters house owners feed supplements to the animals, which include highly adulterated feeds.
“Most of the milkmen mix packed milk to meet the demand, at the same time the milk sold in market is also without any checks. It should be made mandatory to get the milk at an organized sector and has to be tested before it goes to open market, whether it is from shop or from milkmen”, Said RTI activist Raman Sharma.
When contacted, Vinod Sharma, Health officer Jammu Municipal Corporation, said that they had appointed four food safety officer in Jammu for inspection at various food establishments to check the quality of food items being sold in the city. They collect minimum of two samples weekly for the lab test, he added.
When asked about the hygiene in the slaughter houses, he replied that they were not penalizing any of the slaughter house in this regard since as per the orders of Central Government, all the slaughter houses were directed to come up with the hygiene and quality of food which is to be sold to the consumers till 4 Feb 2013 and most of the slaughter houses are turned quite hygienic in the corporation area.
