Srinagar: While the case against the tainted companies allegedly found breaking FSSAI guidelines is still subjudice, the state government, in an unprecedented move, transferred whistle-blower official of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), Shafqat Khan, who revealed their distribution of adulterated food in Srinagar.
He has been transferred by the authorities to a lower rung post as the district immunisation officer of Pulwama. Khan, who joined as the health officer of the SMC in September 2013, has been prematurely transferred after seven months.
In these seven months, Khan took on the Valley’s bigwigs, including Kanwal Foods and Spices and Khyber Milk, Shaan Masala of Pakistan and some New Delhi based spice companies after their products were declared unsafe and hazardous for consumption by forensic tests.
Over 15 samples were sent to a laboratory in Kolkata and the forensic tests revealed that Kanwal Saunf powder contained harmful colouring agents which could even cause cancer.
Sources said the transfer of Khan was long pending as he took on the big food companies of Kashmir in an election year.
Sources told Authint Mail that Khan would receive messages from the officials close to these companies that “process was on to get him transferred.” They said the minister for medical education, Taj Mohiuddin was instrumental in getting Khan transferred.
When contacted, Khan said it was an administrative decision and refused to comment over the issue.
“I am ready to work for the benefit of general public at any place. It doesn’t matter, if they (administration) send me to any peripheral area of Kashmir, I will deliver my best,” he told.
Taking a strong note of food adulteration row, High Court had directed three food companies including two from Kashmir –Khyber and Kanwal – to deposit an amount of 10 crores each with Director Sher-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura within two weeks, after they were found involved in resorting to adulteration.
The division bench comprising Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar and Justice Tashi Rabstan directed the companies to deposit Rs 10 crores each with the directorate, SKIMS. The two Kashmir-based companies along with a Delhi-based manufacturing group whose turmeric powder was also found adulterated, were asked to deposit the amount before the prosecution in the cases is started. The order came following a report by Central Food Laboratory Kolkata which found samples of some of the products manufactured by the companies as “misbranded, substandard and unsafe”.
Khan had also conducted regular field inspections. He fined more than 150 food outlets in Srinagar and collected fine of more than Rs 4 lakh from them.
On finding adulterated food and unhygienic kitchen, he had recently produced a chargesheet against some prominent hotels across Srinagar City.