By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 12 Dec: A meeting of the State Level Advisory Committee regarding food security was held at the Secretariat today under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Dr SS Sandhu. Expressing his displeasure over the progress in the work done to prevent food adulteration, the Chief Secretary directed officials to prepare and present an action plan in the next one week.
Sandhu instructed the officials to launch an immediate campaign to stop milk adulteration. Along with this, instructions were also given to run an intensive sampling campaign to check adulteration in food items. He said that success in this work would be considered only when the general public would say that food adulteration had stopped. For this, sample collection and testing needed to be increased multiple times as compared to the present. Along with this, there should be punishment if adulteration is proved so that those who do adulteration get a lesson. Expressing his displeasure over lack of action on the orders given in the first meeting to increase the testing labs for adulteration in food items, he directed that a proposal be prepared and sent immediately as per the requirements of testing labs and equipment in the state. He said that there will be no shortage of budget for this.
The Chief Secretary added that efforts should be made to get the results of the testing of food samples in the next one or two days. Till the labs are ready, samples should be sent to other states. Sandhu further directed the officials to run a special campaign under the RUKO campaign to eliminate the use of used cooking oil from the food chain. He also talked about organising continuous workshops on awareness. He directed the officers to prepare plans for maximum use of the local food items of the state.
The Chief Secretary said that hotel, restaurants and businessmen who were doing good work in this direction should also be encouraged, while the those indulging in adulteration should be punished and a campaign launched to spread awareness through various mediums.
Present on this occasion were Secretary Ravinath Raman, R Rajesh Kumar, other members of the committee and other senior officials.
