Protect public health

It is heartening to see that about half a dozen food adulterers, who had been freely and fearlessly minting money at the cost of public health all these years, have been nabbed. Madan Baba Maskey and Manendra Maskey of Corner Taja Gudpak Bhandar, Milan Lal Maskey of Shree Krishna Gudpak Bhandar, BL Sharma and Suman Thapa of Anamol Sweets and Lok Prasad Agrawal, the proprietor of Kanaiya Ghee, deserve nothing less than exemplary punishment. To contaminate food with substandard, inedible and even poisonous materials for quick monetary gain and then selling it for public consumption is a criminal act that deserves the harshest of punishment.



District Administration Office (DAO) Kathmandu, Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) and Department of Commerce (DoC) deserve accolades for the recent initiatives to check health hazards and punish the guilty. But will stern action be meted out to the perpetrators? Signs do not seem so encouraging. First, the offenders have been persecuted under the Black Marketeering Act, the punitive action according to which will be two years of jail term and Rs 5,000 fine or both. If such fraudsters can get away just by serving two years sentence and a nominal fine for millions they accumulate from their shoddy business, the punishment, in all likelihood, will not deter such criminals completely. They should at least have been persecuted under the Consumers Protection Act that sentences the culprits for 14 years and fines Rs 500,000 or both.



It may be a bit too early to doubt the efficaciousness of DFTQC and DOC now. We expect that they will continue the campaign so that the consumers’ health is ensured. Yet the authorities must spread their tentacles to other areas of public concern. Contamination and adulteration is not just limited to sweet shops alone. It has permeated in vegetables, fruits, cereals and even medicines. DOC should take note of this reality too. Whether DFTQC will be able to reach out to a wider spectrum is disputable considering a highly limited number of staff in the departments. DFTQC, for example, staffs only four regular personnel for monitoring and inspecting markets. How can four officers manage to monitor the health of millions of people?



Often, Nepali authorities make arrests of the black marketers only to let them go free later under political pressure. It was only recently that notorious Shiva Prasad Ghimire, the proprietor of Sugam Gas, imprisoned on the charge of circulating tampered gas cylinders with re-fitted foot and neck, was freed at the behest of outgoing Minister of Industry Mahendra Paswan. Given that such political interferences are kept at bay and DFTQC and DOC works with unwavering commitment, consumers can hope for better days ahead. But considering how politics and crime is deeply intertwined in the country, this is easier said than done.

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