Medical Officers get additional charge of Food Safety Officer

The State Health Department on Wednesday issued a letter to the effect that all Medical Officers in-charges of Primary Health Centres in the State henceforth would have the additional charge of Food Safety Officers in their area.

Though, the department has justified this decision saying that it was according to the Rule-2.1.3 of the Food Safety & Standard Rules, 2011and section-37 of the Food Safety & Standard Act, 2006 there have been suggestion that the department had taken the steps in wake of Jharkhand High Court stricture.

An official in the Food and Drug Testing Laboratory in Namkom said, “This hurried assignment of extra duties have been affected because the department had to appear in the Jharkhand HC and justify why the HC should not appoint a committee of its own and probe the cases of adultery.”

Earlier in January 2012 the Jharkhand HC had issued notices to the Chief Secretary of the state, Principal Secretary of the Animal Husbandry Department and Principal Secretary of the Health Department seeking their reply on the steps being taken by the State Government to curb adulatory in food after media report of rising cases of milk adulteration.

The HC had taken the suo motto cognisance of the reports published in newspapers. April 22 is going to be fourth appearance of the department in that connection.

While Health secretary refrained from making any comment on the matter he said that the department had taken several steps for stopping adulteration of food.

State’s Director in Chief of Food TP Barnwal said that the Food and Drug Testing Laboratory in Namkom was short-staffed and the decision to give additional charges to the MO in-charges would strengthen them with around 200 food safety officers.

He said that these officers would perform two types of tasks. One, they will collect the samples of food and edible items from their regions and send it to the laboratory for testing. Second, they will also recommend whether or not business operators in their areas should be issued the business licences.

On the questions of the recruitment of permanent staffs on different vacancies in the department he said that delay happened because there was no rule book for the appointment.

“The rule book is in making. We hope it will be completed within maximum of six months from now. And from then on the recruitment might take not more than six months. Thus within a year from now we will make permanent appointments,” he said.