Date:26/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/10/26/stories/2005102602880200.htm

Back Call to broaden scope of Food Supply Bill

Our Bureau

Hyderabad , Oct. 25

THE proposed Food Supply and Standards Bill, 2005, slated to come up for discussion in Parliament in the winter session, holds promise in the effort to regulate the food industry.

But some irritants in the definition of food and related issues need to be thrashed out in consultation with consumer groups and other stakeholders, according to Mr Bejon Misra, Chief Executive Officer of Consumer Voice.

Mr Misra, who was in Hyderabad, met mediapersons to express his concerns from a consumers' standpoint and felt that India is the only country where consumer views are not collated before such an issue is addressed.

As a representative of a national coalition of 57 voluntary organisations, Mr Misra said efforts to replace the archaic Prevention of Food Adulteration Act had been in vain and this move to bring in a new legislation was welcome. This is particularly so, he said, given the increasing number of food items flooding the country from other parts of the world without adhering to basic norms. Referring to the Mashelkar Committee set up by the Prime Minister to look into various aspects of the food-related enactment, Mr Misra said that on October 19, the committee had submitted a report to the Prime Minister urging him to make the Food and Health Ministry the nodal agency for coordinating the enactment. Hitherto other ministries were handling this.

In India, healthcare is a State subject and States have been entrusted the task of handling both health and food related issues. The enforcement of food- and adulteration-related issues needed to be enforced by the State governments. This is often not implemented with the necessary zeal though it concerns the life of people, he said.