KMC, Kolkata Police to conduct joint raids against spurious water suppliers

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will now conduct joint raids with Enforcement branch of Kolkata Police to bring spurious packaged water manufacturers to book after bacteria was found in samples of packaged water in south Kolkata, a few days back.

"Our food inspectors and the Enforcement Branch of Kolkata Police will jointly conduct raids to find out if there are irregularities on the part of the manufacturers and distributors of packaged drinking water," Mayor Sovan Chatterjee said on Monday.

It is learnt that Chatterjee has spoken with Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and the latter had assured the Mayor that he would form a special police team for this purpose.

The various departments of KMC like Water Supply, Drainage, Solid Waste Management and Health department of the civic body are working in close co-ordination on this issue and the number of persons visiting KMC's health unit from the affected areas of south Kolkata have gone down in the last two days.

According to sources in KMC health department, 16 persons visited the health centres of the civic body with stomach

related problems.

It may be mentioned that KMC's food department has already started a drive against packaged drinking water from Friday after coliform bacteria was found inside packaged water in two households in ward 102 and another problematic source was detected from a hand tubewell in the area.

"We will check whether the stuff have the stamp of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on them. If we find any irregularity, we will seize the stuff and will examine them in our laboratories. If we find any contamination, then action will be taken as per legal procedures," a food safety officer said.

Even after conducting several tests, the KMC officials are yet to detect the source in its supply line from where the water contamination happened resulting in diarrhoea or other water borne diseases.