Reports originating from Lahore say that during a 'grand operation' comprising 9244 raids against sellers of unwholesome and unstamped meat. As many as 394 shopkeepers were booked, 81 FIRs were registered, a total of Rs195,100 fines were imposed and 2935 KG unhygienic meat was recovered.
Were the news and the nonchalant attitude of officials regarding the health of masses and its consequences not so dire, the report would have been shunned without a second look just for the sheer insolence of the staff that prepared such an impossible-to-believe report! Nevertheless, the unhesitant way the provincial Additional Chief Secretary of Punjab read the report before the Price Control Cabinet Committee, made one to believe that he must have thought everyone was in the loop that the report was a grand fictional piece or huge joke rather than a tale of an actual 'grand operation'.
For if the report were based on facts, it would have meant that the raiding food inspectors could have taken action against at least fifty thousand meat shop owners in the 9244 raids carried out during the grand operation. The inspectors could have taken at least a hundred thousand samples of meat to the laboratories and received reports regarding these.
Even by the municipal committee or town and cantonment board laws of the British Era, all food shops, especially meat shops, were required to have at least a screen on the front, including the door. Did the additional chief secretary, or his food inspectors, never see during the raids the thousands of screen-less and glassless shops on open roads and streets with skinned carcasses of goats and cows hanging from hooks with flies buzzing on them and collecting dust from passing traffic. Isn't such meat unhealthy and unwholesome! Shouldn't the thousands of owners of all such shops have been fined or arrested! There are laws against such shops.
Since the inception of Pakistan, all governments have been playing with the health of the nation. Health is not serious issue with either the politicians or bureaucrats. There are virtually hundreds of thousands of shops selling raw and packed food items; thousands of hotels, restaurants, cafes and fast food joints selling cooked food in the country and for all these there are hardly thousand or so food inspectors, most of them ill-trained; and a few dozen laboratories to test samples but most of these are ill-equipped.
Had the governments been serious, there would have been many more food inspectors, very many harsh laws and large fines and long jail times for selling unwholesome food. In the current situation, most of the shop owners booked will pay paltry fines and keep on selling unhealthy meat.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Bad food joke from Punjab
Reports originating from Lahore say that during a 'grand operation' comprising 9244 raids against sellers of unwholesome and unstamped meat. As many as 394 shopkeepers were booked, 81 FIRs were registered, a total of Rs195,100 fines were imposed and 2935 KG unhygienic meat was recovered.
Were the news and the nonchalant attitude of officials regarding the health of masses and its consequences not so dire, the report would have been shunned without a second look just for the sheer insolence of the staff that prepared such an impossible-to-believe report! Nevertheless, the unhesitant way the provincial Additional Chief Secretary of Punjab read the report before the Price Control Cabinet Committee, made one to believe that he must have thought everyone was in the loop that the report was a grand fictional piece or huge joke rather than a tale of an actual 'grand operation'.
For if the report were based on facts, it would have meant that the raiding food inspectors could have taken action against at least fifty thousand meat shop owners in the 9244 raids carried out during the grand operation. The inspectors could have taken at least a hundred thousand samples of meat to the laboratories and received reports regarding these.
Even by the municipal committee or town and cantonment board laws of the British Era, all food shops, especially meat shops, were required to have at least a screen on the front, including the door. Did the additional chief secretary, or his food inspectors, never see during the raids the thousands of screen-less and glassless shops on open roads and streets with skinned carcasses of goats and cows hanging from hooks with flies buzzing on them and collecting dust from passing traffic. Isn't such meat unhealthy and unwholesome! Shouldn't the thousands of owners of all such shops have been fined or arrested! There are laws against such shops.
Since the inception of Pakistan, all governments have been playing with the health of the nation. Health is not serious issue with either the politicians or bureaucrats. There are virtually hundreds of thousands of shops selling raw and packed food items; thousands of hotels, restaurants, cafes and fast food joints selling cooked food in the country and for all these there are hardly thousand or so food inspectors, most of them ill-trained; and a few dozen laboratories to test samples but most of these are ill-equipped.
Had the governments been serious, there would have been many more food inspectors, very many harsh laws and large fines and long jail times for selling unwholesome food. In the current situation, most of the shop owners booked will pay paltry fines and keep on selling unhealthy meat.
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