No meat will reach citizens before quality testing, assures KMC officials

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is undertaking a complete overhaul of its infrastructure to ensure the quality of food.

"We will soon have the facilities in place to ensure that no meat is consumed by the citizens of the state without undergoing a test of quality," Member, Mayor-in-Council (Health) Atin Ghosh said.

The civic body will soon set up a dedicated team for each of its 16 boroughs, who will ensure food quality. "It is not only meat. The team will also ensure that no colour is used in the preparation of curry and no industrial ice is used in drinks. We have a number of posts of veterinary officers lying vacant in the corporation. All decks have been cleared and interview for recruitment will start soon," Ghosh added.

A high powered meeting was held in the civic body on Thursday, in presence of the state Food Safety Commissioner, to speed up the process of putting up the infrastructure for food quality control.

A senior official of KMC said that the civic body has decided to come up with mechanised mini slaughterhouses in 16 municipal markets (one each in 16 boroughs).

"The chief manager of the marketing department has been asked to find out space in such markets, for setting up the slaughterhouses," the official added.

The Solid Waste Management department of KMC has written to the director of Alipore Zoo, citing recognition of Zoo Rules 2009, stating that the excess meat left over after feeding the animals should be chemically processed and disinfected before being carried outside the zoo premises, a senior SWM official said.

The KMC has also set the ball rolling to fill up the vacant posts of food safety officers. The sanctioned number of posts for such officers is 32, while the KMC presently has only 13.

Meanwhile, the Dum Dum Municipality is also conducting raids in restaurants on a regular basis, to check rotten meat and adulteration of other food items.

Several samples have been collected and sent to West Bengal Public Health Laboratory at Convent Lane, for conducting tests for presence of formalin and foreign fibres.

It may be mentioned that the chairman of Dum Dum Municipality, Harendra Singh, had led a raid in this connection that was held on Tuesday.