The Hindu : Business : CII wants penalties for food safety offences watered down

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 21, 2005

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CII wants penalties for food safety offences watered down

Gargi Parsai

The Bill is coming up for discussion in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Wednesday

NEW DELHI: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Monday urged the Government to water down the penalties proposed for offences of food adulteration and contamination in the Food Safety and Standards Bill, 2005, which was tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament. Also, the industry wants that "grievous injury'' caused by adulterated food should be clearly defined in the Bill as, according to them, it can not be equated with say, "a stomach disorder for few hours''. According to a CII note, the penalties range between Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 10 lakh.

Both the suggestions were virtually overruled by the Secretary for Food Processing Industries, D. P. Singh, who said an offence which plays with the health of the people through the food they consumed was graver than any other under the Indian Penal Code and could not be taken lightly.

The Bill is coming up for discussion in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Wednesday for which the CII organised an interaction here on Monday.

During the day-long deliberations, the oft repeated recommendation was that the industry be given higher representation in all the bodies proposed in the Bill, including the Food Safety Authority, the Central Advisory Committee and the scientific panels.

They opposed the proposal of the Food Safety Authority being headed by a bureaucrat.

Industry bigwigs wanted what they called the "unbridled powers'' of the Food Safety Officers to be curtailed. They also wanted that all cases being tried under the present "draconian'' Prevention of Food Adulteration Act under the Ministry of Health, transferred to the new Act, whenever it was passed by Parliament.

The industry wanted farmers and primary distributors like the mandi agents to be brought under the purview of the act for "traceability''. "Farmers may have used a wrong pesticide or seed," was their argument.

They expressed their scepticism over the registration and licensing of 40-50 lakh small retailers and vendors.

There were several businessmen who had objection to offensive food samples being lifted from their outlet on "doubt''.

Many wanted that a manufacturer should be allowed to have the "doubtful'' sample sent for testing directly rather than through the Food Officer.

At the outset, the Union Minister of State for Food Processing, Subodh Kant Sahai, said a Vision Document of the Ministry, a Food Policy and an Integrated Agri-business Document were under consideration of the Union Cabinet for giving an impetus to the packaged food industry.

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