Punjab Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua has ordered the concerned parties to ensure strict compliance with the guidelines of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to ensure nutritious and unadulterated food to the residents of the state and stricter action against adulterers. The Chief Secretary said this today while presiding over the third meeting of the State Level Advisory Committee on Safe Food and Healthy Diet at the Punjab Civil Secretariat, Chandigarh.
Mr. Janjua said that there are strict instructions from the Chief Minister that no compromise should be made with the quality of food items and health of the people and strict action should be taken against adulterers. Apart from this, effective measures such as checking, lab testing etc should also be undertaken along with awareness to prevent adulteration because it is a matter related to people's health.
Taking seriously the cases of ripening the vegetables and fruits in unnatural ways, the Chief Secretary said that strict checking should be undertaken to prevent this. Food safety mobile vehicles and testing labs should be increased.
The education department was also instructed to make the students aware about ill effects of adulteration in the morning prayer meetings and to organize competitions among the students in this regard. By making licensing and registration mandatory for the sale of food and beverages, it should be ensured that no food item is sold without it.
Mr. Janjua emphasized on strengthening the infrastructure of food and drug management and said that recruitment of staff, provision of vehicles for monitoring teams and setting up of new labs across the state. He said that checking teams should conduct raids on those who indulge in adulteration of milk products such as butter, cheese and desi ghee.
The number of monitoring teams should be increased. Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare V.P. Singh asked the government institutions especially medical colleges, nursing colleges and other educational institutions to get certification under Eat Right campaign.
Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Dr. Abhinav Trikha briefed the Chief Secretary about the activities being done by the Food Safety Wing. The meeting was attended by Additional Chief Secretary Social Security, Women and Child Development Raji P. Srivastava, Principal Secretary School Education Jaspreet Talwar, Principal Secretary Agriculture Sumer Singh Gurjar, Secretary Punjab Mandi Board Amrit Kaur Gill, AMD Pangrain Parampal Kaur, Director Lab Ravneet Kaur and Joint Commissioner Food Manoj Khosla.