Food safety suffers, 12 posts of FSO lying vacant

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, May 30

The maintenance of food safety standards is suffering due to a shortage of staff in the state. In all, 12 of the 21 districts do not have a regular Food and Safety Officer (FSO).

“The unavailability of officials in the department has not only stalled the job of granting licences to food processing units in the state, but also hit the collection of samples of spurious food items. We cannot ensure compliance with the food safety norms,” claimed a source in the department.

The FSO’s posted in some districts have also been given the additional charge of neighbouring districts, but their unavailability at the headquarters poses problems in the functioning of the office,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.

The Faridabad FSO also has to look after Palwal and Sonepat districts, and the FSO of Rewari has been given the charge of Gurgaon, Mewat and Narnaul (Mahendragarh). Similarly, the Jind FSO has been assigned Rohtak and Jhajjar, while the one posted in Kurukshetra has to look after neighbouring Kaithal district also. The officials stationed at Ambala, Sirsa and Panchkula have been assigned the work for Karnal, Panipat, Fatehabad and Yamunanagar, respectively.

Rajiv Rattan, Commissioner, FDA (Food and Drug Administration), said the vacancies were likely to be filled soon as the department had sought 17 new posts.