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Tough bill against food adulteration tabled

Both fine and imprisonment term raised

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The government yesterday introduced a bill in the Jatiya Sangsad, proposing several tough provisions against manufacturing and selling adulterated food.
The bill piloted by LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan proposed a fine of Tk 75,000 and one year's rigorous imprisonment (RI) for such offence for the first time.
For the second or subsequent times of similar offences, the bill proposed a fine up to Tk 2 lakh and three years' RI as well as forfeiting of the shop or factory, including its machinery, to the government or to the local authority.
The bill titled Bangladesh Pure Food (Amendment) Act, 2005 will also empower the local government authorities to conduct antiadulteration drives in their respective areas. It also proposed to estab-
lish "pure food court" and a "national food safety advisory council" to fight adulterated food in the market.
The government is going to amend the Bangladesh Pure Food Ordinance, 1959 amid widespread media reports on manufacturing and selling adulterated food in the market.
The offences under the bill include manufacturing and selling food which is adulterated or not in proper nature or quality, using
prohibited formalin and intoxicated food colour, keeping or permitting the keeping of adulterants in place where food is manufactured or sold, keeping white oil except in accordance with a prescribed licence, use of false label and publication of false advertisement.
Other offences for which the fine of Tk 2 lakh and three years' RI will be imposed for second or subsequent times include selling diseased animal or unwholesome food, giving false warranty, failure to display name and address of the manufacturer, manufacturing, selling or touching food when suffering from leprosy, tuberculosis or any other notified diseases, and resisting or obstructing inspection, examination or seizure by authorised person or inspector.
Placing the bill, LGRD Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan said, "Amendment to the existing ordinance is necessary to check adulterated and contaminated food and for the sake of public health."
He said the law enforcement agencies are facing tremendous difficulties in curbing the selling and marketing of the adulterated and sub-standard food items as well as in taking action against the culprits in absence of an effective law.
The bill was sent to the parliamentary standing committee on LGRD and co-operatives for scrutiny.
As per the bill, every local authority, including the city corporations and pourasavas, shall appoint one or more persons the public analyst of food within the area to carry out the anti-adulteration drives.
The pure food court consisting of an officer vested with the power of a first class magistrate will be formed in each district and metropolitan area. The officer will have the power to impose any sentence provided in the proposed act. The territorial jurisdiction of each court will be specified by a government notification later.
The bill proposed prohibition of sale and use of poisonous and dangerous chemicals and intoxicated food colour like calcium carbide, formalin, pesticides (DDT,
PCBs oil etc) or flavouring agents in any food which may cause injury to human body.
As per the proposed bill, the LGRD minister will be the chairman of the national food safety advisory council. The council remembers will include senior officials of the ministries of agriculture, commerce, food and natural disaster management, health and family welfare, industry, environment and forest, home affairs, fishery and livestock, and establishment, deputy commissioner of Dhaka, director general of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), chairman of food and nutrition department, Dhaka University (DU), chairman of chemistry department, DU, and a representative of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries.
The council will advise the government on food safety, standard and quality control (National and Codex Standard) for food with the view to ensuring the purity, safety and proper nutritional value of food, and policies and strategies related to food safety and quality control.