When retired food analyst from Madhya Pradesh government Chaturbhuj Meena was hired on contract basis for the State Food Testing laboratory at Namkum in Jharkhand some two months back, he was surely not aware of finding himself under piles of pending food samples with almost everything to do by his own.
"I have to conduct test of around 165 food samples out of 178 samples that I got as a mix of backlog and fresh ones from the day I took charge on April 10 this year. I was stunned to find myself the only food analyst in the lab which needed to have at least 5-6 such analysts seeing the importance of laboratory and the area it covers. But then, you have to do your job and this is what I have been doing here," said Meena on Thursday while being busy with different apparatus, testing samples sent from food inspectors of different districts of the State.
So, only one functional food testing laboratory at the State level for a population of over 3.3 crores in the State against requirement of at least half a dozen, no food inspector on job in the capital city against vacancy of at least three, and no one in the government to appear serious on taking care of quality of meals in dining rooms of families, restaurants and raw materials in markets that one eats day in and day out.
Food analyst's lone struggle with piles of samples in StateIronically, the capital city which is expected to remain more active than any other district on number of issues has sent no sample to State Food Testing laboratory in last two months. "We have received merely seven food samples in last two months from Ranchi district, that also collected by SDO Bhor Singh Yadav alone. I don't know whether there are food inspectors or not, or what they have been doing. I am doing only my work," added Meena.
Another irony is that the reply from government officials on when will the government have the required number of food analysts in the State remains consistent since last year. "We are in process of hiring required number of food analysts soon," said Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Sudhir Tripathi.
"And this is the situation when none of the 24 districts of State has sufficient number of food inspectors at present. The number of samples could have swelled to thousands, had there been all of them at work," said a lab assistant in Namkum lab seeking anonymity.
"Though I am sitting on a pile of samples, those I have successfully tested so far in last two months suggest that at least 30 percent of food items we are consuming in the State are adulterated or poisonous in one way or the other. This is a good percentage keeping in mind that the government of India survey conducted through private agencies claim that some 60 percent of food samples have been found adulterated nationally. But this also means that somewhere men deployed in the State to take care of quality of food items through random sample collection are not at work," said Meena.
He said that couple of samples he came across in State Food Testing laboratory here in the State after over 35 years of service in similar capacity in Madhya Pradesh was dreadful. "look, there are two types of adulterations. One is, adding water in milk, which is harmful. Another is producing synthetic milk, which is fatal. I am afraid the State is badly suffering with second type of poisonous food items," said Meena.