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A CORRESPONDENT
LAKHIMPUR: Lakhimpur district units of Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS) and All Assam Hindu Youth Council (AAHYC) held a press conference at North Lakhimpur Press Club (NLPC) on Saturday and once again came down heavily on the rampant sale of various adulterated and unsafe food products in the markets and commercial institutions of the district.
Organizing the press conference, Lakhimpur MASS secretary Raju Singha and AAHYC president Dipanjal Sonowal and secretary Sambhu Singha expressed strong reaction against the clarification published by the senior Food Safety Officer of Lakhimpur in a daily newspaper as advertisement, denying the complaints made by the two organizations a week ago at NLPC.
These two organizations, in a press conference at NLPC on August 3, had complained that around 500 brands of food products were being unabatedly sold in the markets of the district. In support of their complaint, the dignitaries of the organizations displayed almost 50 such products, along with their list, which were purchased by the activists from around 10 commercial institutions of the markets in North Lakhimpur town.
In this regard, the organizations came down heavily against the senior Food Safety Officer and the Food Safety Officer of Lakhimpur headquarter, criticizing their role towards identifying the adulterated food products which were available in the markets of the district violating the norms of Food Security and Standard Act, 2006. The organizations alleged that the senior Food Safety Officer had failed to ensure the safety and standard of these food products by collecting their sample, investigating about the FSSAI numbers and details about the license record of the companies.
In the press conference, the organizations rejected each and every point forwarded by the Senior Food Safety Officer. Addressing the media persons, Raju Singha said, “With the clarification, he has just tried to delude the people with false declaration in order to defend himself.” He further spoke about his threat of initiating legal action against the media for publishing the news of the previous press conference. “The media have carried out their duty by publishing the news. So he should initiate legal action against us, not against the media as we have made the complaints against the adulterated food products,” he added.
In this regard, AAHYC secretary Shambhu Singha said that the senior Food Safety Officer’s clarification of providing him all information in reference to his RTI application was false. “I submitted the RTI application personally, not from our organization, seeking information against six queries. In this regard, the Senior Food Safety Officer supplied me partial information with which I am still not satisfied. He had been working in Lakhimpur headquarter since 2004 to 2011. Then he has been working here since October, 2012 till date as per the RTI reply. But in his clarification he has declared that he has been working here since 2012. He did not provide me the total number of food product producing persons, companies, mills, hotels, dhabas, bakeries and restaurants of the district which were given FSSAI Registration. I had to submit consecutive letters in order get the partial information of my queries,” he added.
MASS and AAHYC submitted a memorandum to Lakhimpur DC on August 8 regarding food safety in Lakhimpur and demanding a white paper on the activities of the Senior Food Safety Officer regarding the issue, alleging his dereliction towards performing his duties.
In the press conference, Raju Singha declared that the organizations would organize a public meeting and a hunger strike against the availability of adulterated food products in Lakhimpur by August 20. The organizations again displayed around 20 unsafe and adulterated food products in the press conference.