Dinamalar News

Scheme to help tobacco farmers shift to other crops extended to 10 states

NEW DELHI, Aug 12:

Crop diversification programme has been extended to 10 states to encourage tobacco growing farmers to shift to alternative crops, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Production of flue cured virginia (FCV) tobacco, used for manufacturing of cigarettes, has been going down in the past few years and stood at 52.29 million kgs approximately in 2015-16.

Health Minster J P Nadda, in written reply to a question, said that as per the information received from Tobacco Board, Department of Commerce, FCV tobacco production stood at 60.97 million kgs in 2013-14, 57.60 million kgs in 2014-15 and 52.29 million kgs in 2015-16.

He said the government has issued regulations under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which lay down that tobacco or nicotine cannot be used as ingredients in food products.

“As per the information received from the department of agriculture, cooperation and farmers welfare, the Ministry of Agriculture, crop diversification programme, an ongoing sub-scheme of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna has been extended to 10 tobacco growing states with effect from 2015-16 to encourage tobacco growing farmers to shift to alternative crops or cropping systems,” Nadda said.

He said allocations of Rs 2,500 lakh and Rs 3,000 lakh as central share have been made during 2015-16 and 2016-17, respectively, to diversify tobacco farming in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. (PTI)

FSSAI restructures team, renames depts & creates risk assessment divn

New Delhi

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has restructured its team, renamed a few departments and created a division for Risk Assessment and Research and Development (RARD). The RARD division will be be headed by Dr Rubeena Shaheen, who earlier headed the product approval division. She will be accompanied by a scientist and a technical officer.

Product approval will now be a part of the standards division, headed by Anil Kumar. The imports division has been rechristened the International Trade and Cooperation Division (IT&CD). Rakesh Chandra Sharma, the former enforcement director, will be the director of this division.

According to an order related by FSSAI, the Codex Cell will deal with matters pertaining to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and technical barriers to trade (TBT). 

An official said it had been done to ensure that the departments function in accordance to global best practices. He added, “The restructuring has been done for smooth functioning and clear division of work among the department. This will also help in eradicating overlapping in functionalities,” the officials said.

Further, the order stated that Bimal Kumar Dubey would be director, Regulatory Compliance Division (RCD), which is the erstwhile Enforcement Division. It will have a help desk reporting directly to the director.

The FSSAI laid a great deal of emphasis on the Food Safety Management System (FSMS), which will be headed by Suneeti Toteja, accompanied by two scientists.