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| Govt in slumber over consumption of poison; MLAs fighting for amnesty to stone pelters | | Kolkata lab detects fraud in Srinagar lab's food analysis report | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Aug 27: While Omar Abdullah's coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir continues to be conveniently in slumber over circulation of the adulterated food articles and the lawmakers exhaust their energies fully on the competitive separatism, hundreds of thousands of the consumers are running the risk of contracting fatal diseases. In the latest development, a Kolkata-based referral laboratory has found the same samples of turmeric powder and fat-free butter contaminated with highly hazardous chemical and organic ingredients which had been fraudulently cleared for consumption by Food Analyst of Kashmir Division.
"The Director Referral Food Laboratory Kolkata has detected lead chromate in turmeric powder Catch bearing batch No. 14MF15-110 and and coli form in Nutralite Yummy Spread bearing batch No. M-291 and has declared both the food samples as unsafe for human consumption. These samples were lifted by Food Safety Officer Qazigund and were sent to food laboratory Kashmir for analysis. The Food Analyst Kashmir in his report had declared the samples of above mentioned turmeric powder and Nutralite Yummy Spread as of standard quality and the said samples were later sent to referral laboratory Kolkata for reanalysis by this office. In view of the report of Director food laboratory Kolkata, the people are advised not to consume the above mentioned food stuffs", says the Anantnag District Food Safety Officer's letter No: ACFS/DO/Ang/1147-48 dated 28-08-2014, addressed to Deputy Director of Information, Kashmir.
In the urgent letter, a copy of which is with Early Times, the designated Food Safety Officer of Anantnag district Ghulam Qadir has requested the Department of Information that "this information may kindly be got published in the leading newspapers of the State in the interest of general public health.
However, the crucial public interest information has not been published in any of the State's newspapers on August 26 and 27. Officials in the office of Joint Director Information Kashmir did not respond to phone calls from this newspaper. However, an informed source insisted that "black out" of such important news items, notifications and circulars was the direct result of a nexus between the manufacturer and marketing companies and the officers in different government departments, including the Department of Health Services Kashmir and Drug & Food Control Organisation.
The designated Food Safety Commissioner in Jammu and Kashmir, Gazanffar Hussain, who is also Commissioner-Secretary to Government Health & Medical Education and the designated Deputy Commissioner Food Safety [Deputy Drug Controller], too did not respond to phone calls. The cellphone of Food Analyst Kashmir Hamidullah Dar, whose laboratory had earlier declared the same samples as of standard and fit for human consumption, was permanently either not reachable or switched off.
Government sources said that the designated Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Food Safety were responsible under the provisions of the Food Safety Act and other laws in force in Jammu and Kashmir to immediately arrange publication of the notification in mass media, removing the entire stocks of the contaminated foods from the market, seizing and sealing off these quantities and initiating criminal proceedings against the manufacturer and the marketing companies including all the people associated with this illegal business.
Insiders of the Srinagar laboratory have revealed to senior government officials that most of the food samples were being cleared for public consumption without subjecting them to any analysis. "Like in the Agriculture Department's laboratory, where three prominent analysts have been removed on the orders of a pesticide dealer in April, huge amounts of bribe money exchange hands in the Food Analysis lab. Nobody can touch these highly connected officers", said an officer in Health Department.
An eminent physician told Early Times that alarming prevalence of cancer and other diseases was mainly the result of the adulterated food in Kashmir valley. "Be it a Minister or an orderly, everybody here is vulnerable to scores of killer diseases here. The government is completely callous; some allege it receives huge amounts of bribe money from the food processing and marketing majors. Who has shown the spine to punish the three major companies whose products were last year found adulterated and injurious to health?", he said.
According to this physician, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the lead chromate found in the analyzed sample could cause gastroenteritis-related disorders and severe vomiting besides severely harming the human kidneys. Research was going on if this organic compound, which is commonly used to give shine to the yellow paints, could also be carrying carcinogenic effects that cause cancer.
The Kolkata laboratory has observed that there was absolutely no content of Vitamin 'A' in the Nutralite Yummy Spread [a low-fat butter] as falsely mentioned in the label. Besides, the samples have been found highly acidic and containing the coli form bacteria which is normally responsible for causing food poisoning, diarrhea, dysentery and vomiting. |
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