100 illegal packaged water units still in Tiruvallur, Kanchi

CHENNAI: Close to six months after the deadline set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to obtain licences expired, around 100 packaged water units continue to operate in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallurdistricts without required documents.

The food safety department said repeated warnings to these manufacturers had gone unheeded and that its officials had begun sending legal notices to them, asking them to shut shop. The packaged water sector in the two districts accounts for 80% of the industry that caters to the city. Many of these units, food safety officials said, however, had certificates from the Bureau of Indian Standards.

As per the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2011, a licence is compulsory for any food business with an annual turnover in excess of Rs 12 lakh. Those with a lower turnover must register with the state food safety department. The FSSAIndia gave these businesses at least five extensions. The last deadline expired on August 2, 2016.

R Kathiravan, designated food safety officer, Chennai, said all the 17 packaged water units in Chennai with BIS certificates also procured licences from the food safety department, while officials identified 97 units in Kancheepuram and Tiruvalluroperating without the required documents. In all, there are around 300 licensed manufacturers in the three districts.

Last week, officers in the two districts held a meeting with members of the Tamil Nadu Packaged Drinking Water Manufacturers Association asking them to get these units to register themselves or face legal action. A vendor or packaged water unit that fails to register or obtain a licence is liable to be forced to shut, pay fines ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 10 lakh or face imprisonment of up to six months. Although the department has been taking periodic action, shutting two units in Chennai in November, officials say they are still unsure of the procedure. Many businesses had not obtained licences or taken registration seriously because the authorities had extended the deadline several times, an official said. "After the last deadline, we haven't got any clear-cut instructions from the central government," said an official. Lack of awareness about the act could also be a reason for laxity in compliance, he added.

A Shakespeare, general secretary of the TN Packaged Drinking Water Manufacturers Association, said some of the manufacturers had reservations about the act terming it "too stringent and impractical" and the penalties too harsh. "But we are spreading awareness and coercing them to comply with the Act," he said.