Govt wakes up to unsafe, substandard food products

Appoints appellate authority for food safety tribunals after 9 months

govt-wakes-up-to-unsafe-substandard-food-productsAfter Food Safety Appellate Tribunals (FSAT) remained defunct for nine months, government has finally appointed Presiding Officers for Kashmir and Jammu divisions to look at the cases related to food safety matters.
As per the official order, government has appointed Muhammad Yousuf Akhoon, District and Sessions Judge, presently Principal Secretary to Chief Justice, J&K High Court and Maharaj Krishan Hanjura, Member, Company Law Board, Delhi as the Presiding Officers for Food Safety Appellate Tribunal, Kashmir and Food Safety Appellate Tribunal, Jammu respectively.
“The Presiding Officers shall assume the charge of the respective Tribunals within a period of 21 days from the date of issuance of this notification. The term of Presiding Officers shall be five years from the date of joining the assignment or until they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier,” the order issued by Commissioner/Secretary, Health and Medical Education, MK Bhandari said.
In February this year, the government established the two Appellate Tribunals to hear appeals for the decisions of the Adjudicating Officers under Food Safety and Standard Act (FSSA) 2006.
However, authorities had failed to appoint the officers till today which had taken a huge toll on the health of consumers of food products in JK.
“The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been in the process of constituting Appellate Tribunals in a number of states for the last couple of years. However, J&K was lagging behind due to delay in the appointment of Presiding Officers by the State government,” said an official, wishing anonymity.
Official sources told Kashmir Post that a large number of cases related to unsafe, substandard and misbranded food products and items were pending with the District Magistrate and in civil courts.
“The appointments will fast-track the process of litigation in cases like substandard and misbranding of food items among others,” they said.
The Jammu and Kashmir is one of the few places that would have the tribunals in place. Appellate tribunals have already been set up in Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Chattisgarh, apart from the union territories of Andaman & Nicobar and Chandigarh.

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