August 18, 2008	Monday	Sha'aban 15, 1429

RAWALPINDI, Aug 17: Due to absence of food security laws, roadside stalls selling adulterated food items have mushroomed in the Rawalpindi city.

The makeshift juice and food outlets have cropped up in various parts of the city particularly at bus stops, weekly bazaars, around schools and colleges making people especially children vulnerable to fatal diseases like cholera, typhoid, gastroenteritis, shigellosis, mumps and hepatitis.

The food stalls can be seen engulfed by flies and the utensils used for serving the food to customers are cleansed with dirty water as there is no water arrangement with the vendors.

The Sadder area has been swamped by roadside food stalls where adulterated food items are being served to customers.

The cantonment authorities are not bothered to remove these vendors for selling substandard food and making encroachments on the roadsides.

The stalls can also be seen in front of school buildings where the children eat the food thus making themselves prone to many diseases.

Sadly, the vendors have found the school-going children as good consumers.

Dr Akhtar, a physician, said most of the patients he treated complained of sore throat and gastro problems, adding people with weak immune system easily become sick after consuming the adulterated food.

Majority of the food stalls have been set up along sewage drains or near dumping sites.

Despite the extremely unhygienic condition of the food being sold by these vendors, people throng the stalls probably because they are cheap in the backdrop of the skyrocketing food prices in the country.

The food authorities have imposed no restrictions on these vendors thus paving the way for them to expand their business.