The Gauhati High Court’s directive to Assam Government for adopting a modus operandi of preventing the entry of the contaminated vegetables containing unacceptable level of chemicals in Guwahati city brings to the fore a larger issue of public health risk posed by consumption of contaminated vegetables. The government tracing the origin of contaminated vegetables to the farm gates and taking effective measures to curb use of chemicals more than acceptable and permissible levels by growers will be crucial to address the larger public health issue in the entire state. The High Court directive on a Public Intertest Litigation filed by advocate Seema Bhuyan states that experts were unanimous in their view consumption of vegetables containing offending chemicals would cause serious effect on the health of the people consuming such contaminated vegetables and that an effective on-the-spot test on the incoming vegetables to the city can be made at entry points to detect presence of harmful chemicals. The directive follows after the HC found that an expert committee, constituted by it to collect and test samples for presence of harmful chemicals, gave prima facie indication that in many of the agricultural products which are available in the market, unacceptable chemical substances are available. The High Court asked the All India Network Project on Pesticide Residues (AINPPR), a body under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research to ascertain the presence of pesticides and heavy metals in food products including vegetables. This newspaper reported the AINPPR findings of the laboratory tests of collected samples of paddy, black tea, green tea, vegetables, water, soil etc., from Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Golaghat, Darrang, Sonitpur and Cachar districts. The 1,200-page AINPPR report to the HC revealed that 53 vegetable samples had cadmium and lead contamination, few paddy samples had chlorpyrifos and some tea samples contained pesticide residues above the Maximum Residue Limit stipulated by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India. The AINPPR findings corroborated the submission by the petitioner in her PIL about presence of excessive quantities of pesticides and heavy metals in vegetables and crops in the state. Sporadic drives against artificially ripened fruits in the city have failed to put an end to entry of such harmful fruits. The modus operandi for on-the-spot test at entry points as directed by the court covering fruits supplied to markets in the city and elsewhere in the state will be critical to protect consumers from health risk from eating fruits ripened by carbides. The HC has laid emphasis on a coordinated approach of the different departments of the State and central government to make modus operandi “implementable and effective.” While testing the samples will detect the contaminated vegetables and fruits, reaching out to the farmers to generate awareness against excessive use of chemicals and banned pesticides should also get equal attention. Strengthening the Krishi Vigyan Kendras in the state will be an effective step to train the farmers on appropriate use of fertilizers, and permissible limits of chemicals and bio-pesticides. Promoting traditional practice of organic manures can help prevent excessive use of chemical fertilizers. The northeast region has natural advantage of being a hub of organic farming because of such traditional practice but this potential is under threat of being lost due to indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizer by a section of ignorant farmers and some greedy farmers. The green revolution bypassing the northeast region brought this natural advantage of organic farming which can fetch premium and remunerative prices to farmers for food crops thy grow. However, once the image of organic hub is lost it will be difficult for the region which suffers from economic backwardness to create gainful opportunities of livelihood in the agriculture sector. The state government, and more particularly agricultural and horticultural departments taking the lead in generating awareness among farmers on scientific use of organic and chemical fertilizers and pesticides with permissible limit can help farmers to stay away from growing harmful vegetables and fruits in the state. The inspection and on-the-spot tests of samples being a permanent feature will be essential to achieve the desired objective of public health protection from consumption of harmful food products. The state government appointing adequate staff to be required to carry out such inspection on daily basis not just in Guwahati but also all other markets will be required to prevent unscrupulous traders diverting contaminated vegetables to markets in other towns and urban centres or supplying those to neighbouring states. Neighbouring states following the modus operandi to be put in place in Assam and taking pro-active measures to detect contaminated vegetables and fruits will deny such greedy traders and growers in Assam the market and this will have a deterrent impact on farmers. Awareness among consumers on harmful effect of contaminated food will also compel them to stop the harmful practice of excessive use of chemicals.