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Ambitious project loses steam for want of Govt attention
The UPA Government may have been ambitious enough to notify the Food Safety and Standard (FSS) regulations last month but in actuality ensuring food safety in the country does not seem to be its priority.
For, the three-year-old Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) lacks sufficient staff and adequate resources such as laboratories to monitor the implementation of the rules.
What’s shocking is that the Health Ministry is yet to approve all the Service rules to remove uncertainty about the future of the employees of the country’s top food watchdog.
The FSSAI came into being following passage of the FSSAI Act 2006 by the Parliament, repealing the archaic Prevention of Food Adulteration Act 1954.
“The employees who joined the Authority from the Ministry of Food Processing and Department of Animal Husbandry and Department of Food and Consumer Affair under the Ministry of Agriculture are uncertain of their future as six out of nine rules have been approved so far and the seventh is expected to be announced shortly,” sources said.
Considering that the staff transferred to Authority under Section 90 have continued on “deemed deputation” for nearly two-and-a-half years, it is high time to give them an opportunity to exercise option for absorption in the Authority which will remove uncertainty about their future, they added.
“As a result, many employees are going back to their ministries. No wonder, over 60 per cent of the total 350 sanctioned posts in FSSAI are lying vacant. Moreover, there is not enough number of technical posts left for making new direct recruitment after adjusting the existing technical manpower if they all opt for absorption.”
Presently, the organisation is virtually being run with the help of outsourced staff though sources said that it is also not desirable to do so in the long-term interest of continuity, organisational memory, data secrecy and motivation of the staff to monitor growing volume of the food business.
“Currently, it has no full-time chairperson, while the tenure of the current CEO VN Gaur, who is holding the additional charge of the chairperson is to retire in February. But no board meeting has been held so far to discuss the issue.”
For, the three-year-old Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) lacks sufficient staff and adequate resources such as laboratories to monitor the implementation of the rules.
What’s shocking is that the Health Ministry is yet to approve all the Service rules to remove uncertainty about the future of the employees of the country’s top food watchdog.
The FSSAI came into being following passage of the FSSAI Act 2006 by the Parliament, repealing the archaic Prevention of Food Adulteration Act 1954.
“The employees who joined the Authority from the Ministry of Food Processing and Department of Animal Husbandry and Department of Food and Consumer Affair under the Ministry of Agriculture are uncertain of their future as six out of nine rules have been approved so far and the seventh is expected to be announced shortly,” sources said.
Considering that the staff transferred to Authority under Section 90 have continued on “deemed deputation” for nearly two-and-a-half years, it is high time to give them an opportunity to exercise option for absorption in the Authority which will remove uncertainty about their future, they added.
“As a result, many employees are going back to their ministries. No wonder, over 60 per cent of the total 350 sanctioned posts in FSSAI are lying vacant. Moreover, there is not enough number of technical posts left for making new direct recruitment after adjusting the existing technical manpower if they all opt for absorption.”
Presently, the organisation is virtually being run with the help of outsourced staff though sources said that it is also not desirable to do so in the long-term interest of continuity, organisational memory, data secrecy and motivation of the staff to monitor growing volume of the food business.
“Currently, it has no full-time chairperson, while the tenure of the current CEO VN Gaur, who is holding the additional charge of the chairperson is to retire in February. But no board meeting has been held so far to discuss the issue.”
