Food safety officer alleged of over Rs one crore fraud

Sullia, Jul 3: There are allegations that an official of the government functioning under Food Safety and Standards Authority has defrauded both the merchants and the government by not properly accounting for and remitting the money he had collected for issuing licences to the businessmen under Food Safety and Standards Act. After finding that some certificates issued by the official to them were fake, a number of businessmen from the town are up in arms against the official.

Dayanand, food safety officer having jurisdiction over Sullia, Puttur, and Beltangady taluks, stands suspended since June 2. The department has reportedly found that the officer concerned has failed to remit to the government a major portion of the licence fee collected by him from traders. Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 has made it mandatory from August 5, 2011, for those engaged in conservation, transportation, distribution, and sale of food items to get registered in the department and obtain licences. Failure to do so attracts penal provisions including penalty up to five lac rupees and jail term up to six months.

Designated officer for the district under this act, Dr Praveen Kumar, has informed that with effect from March 7 this year, the system of obtaining on-line licences has come into operation, and the traders can now pay an annual fee of Rs 2,000 to the food safety commissioner and obtain their licences on-line. He said based on complaints from merchants, an inquiry was held against the said officials. He has said that the department can act upon the grievances of businessmen if the concerned file written complaints duly mentioning the amount of loss they suffered. The designated officer said that the actual amount involved in this fraud can be calculated only after verifying the evidences provided by the traders and conducting departmental audit, although the businessmen here are of the opinion that the size of this fraud is over a crore of rupees.

A number of businessmen are in a dilemma, as they do not know whether the licences they hold are genuine or not. A number of businessmen and hotelliers, who are holding licences, do not know whether the money remitted by them was deposited in the department by the official or not. It is said that the official used to collect anywhere between Rs 1,000 and Rs 20,000 from each businessman as licence fee, and issue them licences, several of which are alleged to be fake.

President of Merchants Association here, Vishwanath Rao, points out that there the businessmen have no way to check whether the licences issued by the said official are genuine or fake. Insisting that the traders who have paid licence fees as per the said act and obtained licences from this official should not be made to face penal provisions as they are innocent, he has demanded that the official at fault should be proceeded against by filing first information report against him and make him accountable for the financial loss faced by the department.