SHIMLA: Director, health safety and regulations, on Tuesday filed its response in Himachal Pradesh high court on observations made on the issue of large scale use of harmful oxytocin vaccine in milk, fruits and vegetables. The director said that state government does not have any mechanism to test oxytocin injected into fruits and vegetables, milk and non-vegetarian products. The court has now directed the Union government to file its reply within 6 weeks and posted the matter for April 1.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan passed these orders on a petition taken up suo motu by the court as a public interest litigation on misuse of oxytocin vaccine.
Amicus curiae Satyen Vaidya had submitted that only 11 samples of fruits, 4 of vegetables, 11 non-vegetarian food items and 91 samples of milk were lifted in the entire state during the last three years despite huge paraphernalia of the food safety department and the drug control administration. He said that only 117 samples were lifted during 3 years in the entire state and only 65 of them analyzed, which shows the concern of the food safety administration towards its duties. The Composite Testing Laboratory (CTL), Kandaghat, does not have a facility for detection of oxytocin in food samples. It has also not been specified whether the food samples were sent specifically for detection of oxytocin or not.
The amicus curiae also submitted that the drug control administration has failed to provide data about steps taken by it to check its abuse and is conspicuously silent about possibility of oxytocin being illegally imported into the state from other parts of the country and even overseas and no date has been provided to show steps taken by the drug control administration to keep strict vigil and check on manufacturers and chemists indulging in its sale, except one seizure conducted during the last 3 years, when 254 injections of oxytocin (for veterinary use) were seized.
In reply to this, the director submitted that the matter, under present circumstances, was more of research rather than regulatory. The director said that the state government does not have any mechanism to test the factum of oxytocin in fruits and vegetables, milk and non-vegetarian products injected with the said drug.
The government of India has not prescribed any norms under PFA/FSSA for carrying out tests for oxytocin in foods. He said that media reports about misuse of oxytocin and its harmful effects on human health were not based on any scientific date and no such ill effects have been reported by ICAR on animals on which experiments were carried out.
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