PESHAWAR, Jan 12: The food and sanitary inspectors are collecting samples for laboratory analysis in sheer violation of rules, official sources told Dawn on Monday.
"The inspectors collect samples from the shopkeepers and send these to the Government Public Health Food Analysis Laboratory. As a rule, the sealed samples should carry the signatures of the inspectors and the shopkeepers from whom the samples are being taken," an official of the health department said.
He said that the inspectors did not allow the shopkeepers to sign the sealed samples before being sent for analysis. The official claimed that the inspectors later adulterate the samples with irrelevant stuff in their bid to get a positive result and impose penalty on the shopkeepers.
Many shopkeepers say that inspectors working under the food and health department or local government or cantonment boards harass them only to mint money.
An official said that the many inspectors were violating the Pure Food Ordinance, 1960. The ordinance says the directors may exercise the powers and functions of the inspectors under this ordinance or any assistant director or any other officer working under the director may exercise such powers and perform such functions of an inspector within such areas, as the director may, by order in writings directs.
According to the ordinance, only the health officers could perform such functions, whereas the BPS-6 sanitary inspectors do not fall in the category of officers and, therefore, were not authorized to perform the functions of inspectors.
The rules say, "the sanitary and food inspectors are required to take care of cleanliness, take preventive steps in their respective jurisdictions about the outbreak of epidemics and killing of stray dogs, etc. Furthermore, these inspectors should not be permanent employees, but ex-officio."
Likewise, food inspectors were also not authorized to collect samples because they do not come in the purview of the officers, required for performance of such functions under the prescribed law.
The so-called inspectors collect samples of edibles oil, milk and tea leaves in which they could easily mix irrelevant materials. The shopkeepers, who bribe them do not face actions, because samples were not collected from them.
"The inspectors send pure stuff on behalf of those who pay them bribe," said a official of the laboratory. But those wanting fair business were always at the receiving end. He claimed that it could be established through laboratory's record. Samples from some of the shopkeepers were being sent every month and FIRs lodged against them, he added.
Milk has 70 per cent adulteration ratio, but the inspectors do not send samples for analysis because the milk-sellers pay them some amount on monthly basis, while the others where adulteration ratio was only 30 per cent on an average, had to bear the brunt.
Some of the areas, such as Mingora, Dir and Malakand do not have such inspectors while the others have got the services of district sanitary inspectors, tehsil sanitary inspectors, ration controllers and food controllers.