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Madurai's merchant community terms FSSA detrimental to farmers' interests
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Monday, 30 January, 2012, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Akshay Kalbag, Mumbai
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The merchant community in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, has called the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, (FSSA), detrimental to the interests of farmers and self-help groups in its present form and urged the Centre to postpone the enforcement of the Act.
S P Jeyapragasam, president, Tamil Nadu Foodgrain Merchants' Association, Madurai, told FnB News, “The Act, which came into force from August 5, 2011, would curtail farmers' opportunities to sell their products at competitive prices.”
According to the Act, the farmers who grow the food products and the traders are liable for action for deficiency in the quality of agro products. “The errant farmers and traders would have to pay a fine ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, and the minimum sentence in prison is six months,” he said.
When asked about the maximum term in jail, he said that depends on the offence. He stressed on the fact that the deficiency in the quality of agro products due to the changes in the weather should also be taken into consideration.
Jeyapragasam said the government was selling liquor and tobacco products while admitting that the consumption of these products was injurious to health. “The government that sells these products tends to penalise traders heavily if the product they sell is found to be substandard,” he rued.
After explaining how unreasonable the government was being in awarding penalties to the traders without taking into account the change in the quality of the product due to the changes in weather, he said, “The laws should be universal.”
He also said the products made by members of self-help groups cannot be brought under the purview of the FSSA. “They will be wiped out of business. Sections and clauses of the Act are rather harsh. Moreover, what works in a developed country cannot be implemented in a country like India, where basic sanitary conditions need to be uplifted and seasonal variations need to be taken into account.”
The law had also stipulated that about 250 food testing laboratories be set up across the state before the Act was implemented, but work had not begun on any of these yet, he pointed out. The association reiterated the demand, and said that it would make sure every district had its food testing laboratories.
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