The way cases of adulterated and spurious edible oil as well as ghee have surfaced one after another shows that Jammu and Kashmir is all set to become a hub of adulterated food items in the country. The need of the hour is that directions should be given to the top boss of FDA to activate their rusted machinery.
JAMMU: After counterfeit P mark mustard oil, the valley is flooded with sale and stocking of duplicate popular Verka brand desi ghee which is generally used by consumers across the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory.
Terming the sprawling business of spurious, adulterated and counterfeit products of popular brands in Kashmir as alarming, reliable sources in Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) told JK Global News “Recovery of 1000 tins of fake Verka brand ghee from Anantnag is just a tip of an iceberg. By faking name of well known brands large numbers of spurious and adulterated items ranging from spices to juices and jams, sauces, salt, ghee, oil etc are sold with impunity in market in almost every market especially in far flung areas. This spurious product industry enjoy a considerable chunk of market share”.
This business of profiteering is largely managed by a section of influential greedy and unscrupulous businessmen who are pumping deadly disease into every home without being noticed by anyone. This is a dangerous trend and warrants attention from the concerned department for close monitoring as also by District Magistrates in every district on priority, added an officer of FDA preferring anonymity.
Last year in the month of October, the Kulgam police on a tip off arrested a truck driver who was returning to Jammu carrying consignment of P Mark oil after the trader flagged it as fake and spurious.
Consequently, the team of FDA raided markets in several districts of Kashmir and recovered large number of counterfeit P mark oil which was pumping into the valley since long.
The warehouse of this fake P Mark mustard oil was based in Baribrahmna and strangely the person who was managing it at the instance of one influential trader suddenly disappeared into oblivion.
Similarly, this year in the month of February nearly 20 quintal of spurious and fake salt with counterfeit packing of known TATA salt was recovered from a warehouse in Doda by police team on the compliant of TATA salt sale representatives heading the region.
The problem of adulteration makes the food items used in our daily life unsafe and causes tremendous effect on health with serious ailments like cancer, diarrhoea, asthma, ulcers without our knowledge, revealed Dr. Zahid. “There is an exponential rise in cases of malignancies among people in the valley due to consumption of spurious and adulterated food items which a common man cannot figure out”, he said.
Strangely, even as the sale of spurious and adulterated eatable products rapidly occupy comfortable place in markets, the role of FDA to check its sale was not upto the mark.
There are reports that all the three food testing vans remained idle in Jammu for a long time and not used by the then Assistant Food Safety Commissioner, Jammu Dr. Parvesh who miserably failed to check the stock of adulterated and spurious ghee, oil etc in some shady warehouses of Jammu from where the stocks were lifted by various traders of different districts, revealed FDA sources. The damage inflicted for 5 years cannot be rectified in a day, said insiders in FDA.
The FDA needs to set its house in order and in a routine manner randomly lifts samples for scrutiny from markets. The focus should be on warehouses and wholesale traders, said a senior officer of Drugs and Food Control Organization on condition of anonymity.
The administration should gird up its loins and constitute a Commission of Inquiry to enquire into the role of those entrusted with the job of checking the sale of spurious and adulterated food items in the Jammu region which houses majority of warehouses for store and stocking of items used by consumers on daily basis, said Prof. S.K. Bhalla.
Suggesting that government should formed multi departmental team comprising officers of CAPD, Legal Metrology, JMC and FDA to check menace of food adulteration, Prof. Bhalla asserted that administration is duty bound to ensure supply of safe and healthy food items for consumption of citizens. Those incapable to check menace of spurious food sale should be identified and sacked.