NEW DELHI, APRIL 8: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has indicted the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Department of the Delhi government for laxity in sampling and examination of adulterated mustard oil which resulted in 66 deaths and hospitalisation of 2,556 others in the Capital due to outbreak of the Dropsy epidemic in August 1998.In its report for the Financial year 1998-99 tabled this week in the State Assembly, the CAG held the department responsible for the outbreak of the disease saying that the PFA department had ignored sampling, lifting and examination of mustard oil, used in most households, during the three years preceding August 1998.The number of samples of the edible oil lifted by the department during 1995-96 to 1997-98 was 16, 10 and 29, respectively and only three samples were lifted during April to July 1998."The outbreak of dropsy can be directly attributed to the negligence in sampling of mustard oil," the report said.In addition, not a single accused was convicted even ten months after the outbreak. Scrutiny revealed that till July 1999, all the 18 accused were discharged by the designated courts due to failure of the department to substantiate charges of adulteration.The CAG pointed out that the risk of adulterated food being supplied to the consumers in Delhi was serious due to a "woefully inadequate surveillance and follow-up" measures in this regard.The department was not paying attention to certain commodities of mass consumption such as milk, edible oil and mineral water even though the risk of adulteration was high. Very few samples of these items had been lifted in a systematic manner, the CAG said.Keeping in view the abnormally high rate of adulteration, there was scarce justification for reducing the number of samples of these items, particularly milk, it said.In the case of mineral water, it was found that the percentage of adulteration was 86 and 71, respectively during 1996-97 and 1997-98, while 50 per cent of the samples of pan masala were found to be adulterated. Yet, the department did not intensify surveillance.The report noted that Delhi is the only state in the country where a licensing authority responsible for issuing permits to food establishments or vendors after ensuring their quality is yet to be established. This resulted in a loss of about Rs 200 crore to the exchequer.The PFA did not have information about the exact number of food establishments in the capital. The figure arrived at (150,000) was on the basis of sales tax registration or information from other departments, and was only an estimate.Worse still, the CAG report said, the infrastructure of the PFA department was inadequate to cover the estimated number of establishments. No serious attempt had also been made to assess such requirements to ensure proper surveillance and follow up to provide reasonable assurance of unadulterated and uncontaminated food vending in Delhi.Even its existing infrastructure had been performing very poorly. Against the target of 12 food samples to be lifted per inspector, each one of the 37 inspectors lifted on an average just about two samples per month. The underutilisation of food inspectors was to the extent of 83 per cent, the report said.Besides, it noted, whatever little sample check is undertaken by the department were on a random basis rather than on a systematic and planned pattern.The PFA department remained without a regular public analyst who is responsible for overall control of chemical analysis for five years. This adversely affected the quality of tests carried out in the food laboratory. Besides, the laboratory, being an integral part of the department, the independence of sample testing stood compromised.Highly sensitive imported laboratory equipment remained unused for more than five years with no tests conducted during that period, the report said.
