The government will set up a new food and drug administrative agency to check the rampant adulteration of food items that has exposed people to serious health hazards, announced the health and food adviser, AMM Shawkat Ali, on Monday.
   He told a press conference at the health ministry that the government would take measures to stop sales of questionable food items, including baby formulas, and discourage advertisements that allure children to eat the food items that are bad for health.
   Despite the High Court’s order and the hue and cry against powder milk contaminated by excessive percentage of melamine, the banned milk brands are being sold and displayed openly in the shops, as has been seen in Nakhalpara, Arambagh and some other areas in the capital.
   A rights group has, in the meantime, filed a contempt of court case against the secretaries to the home, health and commerce ministries and the inspector-general of police for not executing the court’s order that banned the sale of eight brands of milk powder even three days after the order was issued.
   ‘We must take a strong position on the food issue as the sale of contaminated baby formulas is unprecedented and may cripple the future generations. Steps will be taken so that there is no false publicity through advertisements in this regard,’ said the adviser.
   He was giving the details of the initiatives and measures that the health ministry has taken after the discovery of melamine contamination in powdered milk.
   The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution has requested the home ministry to take action against traders who are found to have been selling and displaying banned milk brands, as has been widely reported in the newspapers.
   ‘We have already forwarded to the home secretary today the notifications and warnings against eight banned milk brands and have sought the help of the police to stop their sale and display,’ the BSTI’s director-general, Ajmal Hossain, told New Age. Ten BSTI mobile courts, presided over by magistrates, that are already engaged in drives against adulterated food and pirated products in the market, have been asked to also launch fresh drives against banned milk products, he claimed.
   Following Thursday’s order issued after hearing the public interest litigation by the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, the group on
Monday filed another lawsuit with the High Court bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice Mohammad Abdul Hye. The case is likely to be heard today.
   Earlier, the High Court bench of Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui issued the ban order and asked the four officials, and two others, to explain in four weeks why their inaction — not stopping the sale of banned milk powders — would not be declared illegal.
   ‘The officials deserve to be accused of contempt of court as they ignored Thursday’s High Court order that banned the display and sale of eight imported brands of milk powder that were tested and found to be melamine-positive,’ said advocate Manzil Murshed on behalf of the rights group.
   Shawkat Ali mentioned that it might take up to two years to give the final shape to the planned drug and food administration in the light of America’s Federal Food and Drug Administration and such agencies in some other countries like Australia. ‘Since there is no single body to deal with the issues that arose recently, we have decided to create a new regulatory entity,’ he said.
   As a stopgap measure the government will constitute a high-level inter-ministry committee, to be backed up by a technical committee, to deal with the contamination and adulteration of food items, said the adviser.
   The deputy commissioners will lead district-level committees to monitor the situation and take the necessary measures, he added. The health ministry is campaigning to spread the message to parents that there is no alternative to mother’s milk.
   The government has asked the milk producing companies and their agents to submit, by November 30, the certificates guaranteeing that their products do not contain industrial chemical melamine, he said.
   When he was asked about the poor enforcement of the High Court order to stop the sale of the eight condemned brands of milk powder, the adviser said the government had already started acting in response to the court’s directive although a certified copy of the order was yet to reach the authorities concerned.
   Referring to the home secretary’s assurance, he told the reporters that the government would properly enforce the court order to ensure that no one could sell the banned brands of powdered milk.
   The BSTI has completed the testing of 40 brands of powdered milk, including the eight banned brands, samples of which have also been sent abroad for testing. Reports will be available in the next couple of days, said officials.



Source: The New Age