A regional colloquium on “Pure Food” here in Chandigarh

A regional colloquium on “Pure Food” here in Chandigarh

BK Sharma, Surya News (Chandigarh): The first of its kind in India, after the enactment of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, State Legal Services Authority, U.T., Chandigarh, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Punjab and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India here on Saturday organized a Regional Colloquium on “Pure Food” here in Chandigarh.

The Seminar was organized at Chandigarh Judicial Academy, Sector 43-D, Chandigarh. Hon’ble Mr. Justice A.K Sikri, Judge, Supreme Court of India inaugurated this seminar.

The Hon’ble Judges from the High Courts of Punjab and Haryana, Allahabad, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand and Jammu & Kashmir, representatives of Centre and state Governments, Judicial Officers and other dignitaries from northern region of the country participated in the Colloquium.

The proceedings of the Colloquium were also telecast live in the adjoining convention Hall, to enable the Trainee Judicial Officers to have access to the deliberations, for the constraints of space in the Auditorium, which was packed to capacity.

Colloquium was necessitated as the provisions of the newly enacted welfare legislature are not thoroughly known to the public and to the officials dealing with the Act, so there was need to sensitize the Officers empowered under the Act and to create awareness to the general public.

Hon’ble Mr. Justice A.K. Sikri, while inaugurating the Regional Colloquium, has emphasized on the strict implementation of the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, the pure food being a Fundamental Right. He has highlighted the double standards of the MNCs, which are preparing the food articles for their respective countries in strict compliance with the Rules and Regulations of the said countries, but when it comes to India, these very Companies prepare the adulterated food items.

While echoing the issues and concerns raised by Dr. Sunita Narian, Justice Sikri has also made mention about the judicial activism and the Courts entering the arena of legislation by issuing necessary and requisite directions to ensure the access to an unadulterated and pure food to the citizens of the country, in view of the laxity on the part of the Executive.

He has lauded the initiatives taken by Legal Services Authority, U.T., Chanidgarh under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Mr. Justice Hemant Gupta as well as Health Department, Government of Punjab, for holding such colloquium of first of its nature in the country and also called upon the other State Governments in the country to create awareness amongst the citizens about their rights to have pure food and further give effect to the scheme and objective of the Act.

Justice Ashutosh Mohunta, Acting Chief Justice, Punjab and Haryana High Court has emphasized that Right to Pure Food has to be considered as fundamental human right and to ensure that Pure Food is available for all, the existing food law has to be strictly enforced.

It is especially during the festival season like Diwali that one notices about rampant adulteration in food products particularly in sweets. It is during this time that the authorities under the Act should be more vigilant so as to ensure that common man gets pure food products, sweets and other articles. The violators of the provisions of the Act should be dealt with firm hand so as to ensure that everyone gets un-adulterated, non-contaminated food. We all should spread general awareness amongst the masses about importance of pure food and ill effects of Food Adulteration because it is the question of everybody’s health and broadly speaking, it is the question of nation’s health.

Hon’ble Mr. Justice M.M. Kumar, Chief Justice, Jammu and Kashmir High Court, emphasized on the need for having a strong legislation as well as regarding setting up necessary infrastructure and trained and dedicated manpower and well equipped to implement the provisions of the Act in their letter and spirit.

Hon’ble Mr. Justice Hemant Gupta raised the concerns about the uncontaminated and healthy food being a big challenge despite the legislation of the various statutes including the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. He stressed upon fixing of responsibility of the manufacturers in case the food products were found to be not meeting the prescribed standards.

Dr. Sunita Narain stressed upon the need for having strong legislation. While raising her serious concerns about the adulterated food items, she referred to the instances of antibiotic having been found in the samples of honey and chicken tested in the laboratories. She said that our country the farmers have been driven to go for industrial farming by using pesticides to increase the productivity, but by compromising on the health and safety standards. The Food we eat is either adulterated, unhealthy or contaminated.