PESHAWAR, July 27: The food and sanitary inspectors have become a source of embarrassment for the shopkeepers across the province as they collect samples of edible commodities from the outlets and send these for laboratory analysis, although they are not empowered to do so.

“The inspectors collect samples from the shopkeepers and send these to the Government Public Health Food Analysis Laboratory. As a rule, these sealed samples should carry the signatures of the inspectors and the shopkeepers from whom the samples are being taken,” said an official of the health department. According to him, they adulterate these samples with irrelevant stuff in order to get a “positive result,” and impose penalty on the shopkeepers.

The matter of concern is that there are a lot of inspectors working under the food and health department or cantonment boards and all of them harass the shopkeepers, mill owners and drink-sellers only to fleece them. These inspectors have been doing all this in sheer violation of the Pure Food Ordinance of 1960 which clearly states that the director may exercise the powers and perform the functions of an inspector under this ordinance and any assistant director or any other officer working under the director may exercise such powers and perform such functions of an inspector within such area as the director may, by order in writing, directs.

According to the ordinance, only the health officers can perform such functions whereas the BPS-6 sanitary inspectors do not fall in the category of officer and, therefore, are not authorised to perform the functions of inspectors.

According to the laid down rules, the sanitary inspectors are required to take care of cleanliness, take preventive steps in their respective jurisdiction about the outbreak of epidemics and kill the stray dogs, etc. Furthermore, these inspectors should not be permanent employees but ex-officio.

Similarly, food inspectors are also not authorised to collect samples because they also do not come in the purview of the officers, required for such functions.

They collect samples of edible oil, milk and tea leaves in which they can easily mix irrelevant materials. Besides, samples from those shopkeepers are also being sent to the laboratory for analysis who are willing to pay monthlies to these inspectors. This is clearly evident from the laboratory’s record.

Milk has 70 per cent adulteration ratio but the inspectors do not send its samples because the milk-sellers pay them some amount on monthly basis while the others, where the adulteration level is 30 per cent on an average, have to face the tune.

Surprisingly, some of the districts like Dir, Mingora, Malakand etc., do not have such inspectors while the others have got the services of district sanitary inspectors, Tehsil sanitary inspectors, ration controllers and food controllers. An official in the provincial health department told Dawn that a few years back an inspector mixed up ash with a sample of spice to implicate a Swabi-based spice dealer. When the matter was investigated, the blame was shifted to the peon by the inspector. The poor peon was suspended though he had nothing to do with the matter.

Maintenance of quality control, according to the laid down rules, is the responsibility of the officers of the health department.

The secretary health, however, told Dawn that he would look into the relevant laws and would take appropriate action.