With only 17 staffers to administer the food safety of 11 crore people, the situation of food safety in Bihar lies in doldrums.
According to Food safety act, every state is supposed to have one state health officer (SHO) per one lakh population but even though the population of Patna has crossed 27 lakhs, the city still has only one SHO.
With a population of more than 27 lakhs and more than 50,000 small and big hotels, shops, restaurants and stalls, the job of giving license, checking of safety norms and inception becomes a tedious job for one SHO.
The SHO is the one to keep track of law-breakers and see that they are punished and changes are brought in as per the norms. In this situation, the food safety law has become a joke.
The nation celebrated world food safety day on April.7, but the situation of food safety in Bihar lies in doldrums. Food safety officer and his team of 16 members (14 SHOs and two Designated officers) heads the responsibility of the state which has a population of around 11 crore.
63 raids in three years:
The food safety and standards act was brought in action in Oct 2011 and since then only 63 cases of food safety issues have come up in Bihar. During this period, 14 cases were brought up from the other five districts, Bhojpur, Buxar, Rohtas, Kamur and Nalanda. In most of the cases, a mere formability was done and the matter is forgotten over time or remains pending in the courts.
Only 2520 shop and hotel owners from these six districts have taken license from food safety office, till date.
According to an official from food safety department, collection of food sample becomes a tedious task for the officials due to lack of security system.
“The wrong doers do not allow us in their shops, some even start arguing and fighting. In these situations it becomes difficult to collect sample and we have to return without sample. We do have the right to use police force if necessary but the long process of requisition form, application for number of employees needed, then telling them the exact time of raid, and then excuses like higher official is not here, creates unnecessary delay,” said the official.
It would be better if we have police deployed in our department itself, added the official.
Only 17 staffs to administer the food safety of 11 crore people
According to Dr. Mukeshjee Kashyap, food safety officer cum registering authority for Hajipur, Mothihari, Bettiah, Sitamarhi and Seohar, the state had its last recruitment for food safety department in 2004.
The department started functioning with 30 members initially, but with time, the members started retiring and now have only 17 members.
“The department has only 30 sanctioned posts. At the time of Bihar Jharkhand division, the officials were also shifted to Jharkhand,” said Kashyap.
The department has also raised the qualification criteria for the recruitment. M.SC in chemistry plus food safety training has become the minimum qualification, hence it has also become difficult to find people with high qualification, added Kashyap.
According to Kashyap, they have filed an application for recruitment of 625 SHOs (1 SHO per block, and also 1 SHO per 1 lakh population), 39 DOs (one officer each for the 38 district in the state and one for the headquarters), 101 assistant DOs, and four special DOs for raid team, 9 deputy food commissioners, (one for each division in the state) and one food safety officer for the whole state.
“The file has been cleared by the health department and is now in the finance department, and we hope that all the appointments will be made in the coming two-three month,” confirmed Kashyap.
Norms of food safety:
The food safety law has divided the owners into four categories:
- Owners with yearly turnover of less than 12 lakhs do not need to take license, they only need to get themselves registered every year by paying a minimal charge of Rs100.
- Owners with turnover of more than 12 lakh need to get license every year by paying Rs 2000 as charge.
- Manufacturing units with less than 1 ton of manufacturing need to pay Rs 3000 per year for license.
- One can get the license or registration for only 5 years at one time.
The laboratory also lies dysfunctional due to absence of analyst:
United manure and drug laboratory (Sanyukt Khad avam aushadi prayogshala) of Patna is lying dysfunctional due to lack of food analyst. The samples are sent to other states for testing and it takes at least 40 days for the results to come, leading to unnecessary delay in the work.
Ramdhani Singh, health minister, Bihar has said that attempts are being made to resolve all the problems and the cabinets will work towards it.
“We are trying our best, due to lack of man power it’s difficult to carry the work and follow the act,” said Singh.
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