Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. Nirmal Singh today directed the officers to put in place a vibrant and robust mechanism in order to check the food adulteration and ensure strict enforcement of food safety and standard rules.The Deputy Chief Minister was addressing officers during a meeting regarding delegation of powers to food safety officers of urban local bodies.It was attended by Principal Secretary, Health and Medical Education, Dr Pawan Kotwal, Commissioner Secretary Housing and Urban Development, Hridesh Kumar, Directors of Urban Local Bodies, Jammu and Kashmir, Drug Controller J&K, Commissioner Jammu Municipal Corporation and other senior officers.Dr Singh asked the officers to ensure that the requisite parameters already enshrined in the rules should be strictly enforced so that the adulteration of food and other related items is checked. He also asked for putting in place the requisite mechanism so that regular checks are conducted and necessary feedback obtained from the consumers as well as the market.
The Deputy Chief Minister also directed for utilizing the services of trained human resource so that the desired results are obtained. He said that this would go a long way in improving the quality of food items and other related things to the consumers.Dr. Singh said ensuring safe food is a priority of the Government. He said it is the collective responsibility of all to work together for creating awareness among the people about safe and nutritious food.The Deputy Chief Minister said safe and nutritious food is essential to ensure public health as taking unsafe and spurious food can create critical problems and negative impact on the public health.He said we have to change our mentality to ensure environment-friendly safe food and added that an effective mechanism is vital in taking proper steps for overcoming different problems in food production, import, processing, preserving, supplying and marketing.