COIMBATORE: Teams of food safety department officers have been conducting surprise raids at the petty shops in different parts of the city for the past four days as part of a special drive. They found 32 shops selling banned tobacco items and one shop using non-food grade plastic.
Designated food safety officer K Tamilselvan said of the 32 shops, 26 had already paid the fine. “The remaining shops are expected to pay it by Friday. Shops that fail to pay the fine will lose their licence and registration,” he said.
He said the shops were selling banned chewable tobacco products such as haans, cool lips and paan parag. “The shops were located in Gandhipuram, Arockiasamy Road and Devanga School in RS Puram, Singanallur and Sulur,” the officer said. Pointing out that they had inspected 112 shops in total, he said the shops that were selling banned items were using small sachets. “So, we could not lift the samples. Hence, we imposed fines,” he said.
A total of 31.8kg banned items worth around Rs 45,000 were seized during the special drive.
The drive was part of efforts to reduce movement of banned tobacco products in the district. “Though we are focusing on catching wholesalers and distributors, we believe that cracking the whip on petty shops that sell the banned items is also important to flush out the tobacco rackets,” Tamilselvan told TOI.
In December, food safety officers had received a directive, allowing them to impose spot fines on business operators who violate the norms.
While the first and second violations attract fine, repetition of the same violation for the third time will attract a higher amount of fine and cancellation of the registration certificate issued by the food regulator.
The officer said the spot fine system was expected to have a deterrent effect on petty shops that repeatedly flout food safety norms.
No comments:
Post a Comment