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'Set up nat'l food safety council to protect consumers' rights'

BSS, Dhaka
A marketing court, appropriate laws and watchdog agencies governing the behaviour of sellers, manufacturers and service providers are a must to stop marketing of adulterated food and consumer items, said speakers at a seminar in the city.
They called for setting up a 'national food safety council' to coordinate all market-related issues and working out a 'comprehensive national food safety policy' immediately.
The Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB) organised the seminar on 'Safe food and where do we stand' at BIAM auditorium on Thursday.
"A free market can't operate without a marketing court," said Prof Mizanur Rahman, now teaching law at the Dhaka University.
He stressed the need for quick enactment of the consumers' protection act, now waiting for vetting in the law ministry.
Even in India, he said, there are basic laws protecting buyers. In the Scandinavian countries, stricter laws and even separate courts are at work to deal with market violations in terms of price and quality, he added.
Prof A I Mostafa of the department of applied chemistry of Dhaka University said the draft policy on food and drug administration that a team of experts recently presented to the authorities has somewhere lost the part of food-related policy recommendations. It is quite sur-
prising, he added.
The speakers said the authorities should put in place a very strong law enforcement mechanism in the market. It may be done, they said, by coordinating the services of the sanitary inspectors down to the upazila level, BSTI testing capacity, DCCI supervisors and other health monitoring agents under a common platform.
Director General of BSTI Abdul Hawk Chowdhury made a strong case for coordinated, concerted and consistent move by all agencies to
ensure good results.
Some discussants believed that the government can harmonise the services of available field staff staggering over different departments and autonomous agencies before taking any move to add new manpower to certain agencies.
The government's response should be need-based to enhance the laboratory capacity, market surveillance and the striking capacity in the market place, they said.