Acute Manpower Crisis Hits Commissionerate of Food Safety In Guwahati

GUWAHATI: Though food safety standard in the State is dependent on the Commissionerate of Food Safety, the hard fact remains that it has been ailing acutely due to manpower deficit since its inception in 2016.

The Commissionerate of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was created by the State government by way of amalgamation of the proposed office of the Commissionerate of Food Safety and the existing office of the drug controller through a notification issued on April 29, 2016 under the control of the Commissionerate of Food and Drugs Administration.

The office has no sanctioned posts of commissioner, deputy commissioner, joint commissioner, upper divisional assistants, lower divisional assistants, fourth-grade employees and others. Even though a proposal has been sent to the government in 2017, nothing tangible has been done as yet. The Commissionerate of Food Safety has two wings under it, namely the Laboratory wing and the Enforcement wing. Both the wings were earlier with the Directorate of Health Services. But these wings of the Commissionerate are also suffering from acute manpower crisis.

The sorry state of affairs can be gauged from the fact that though the Enforcement wing of food safety has 89 sanctioned posts yet as many as 45 of them have long being lying vacant. This wing has only one Designated Officer (DO) in Kamrup (Metro) as against the 12 sanctioned posts for the entire State. The wing has only nine senior Food Safety Officers against the sanctioned strength of 18. Only 25 Food Safety Officers against the sanctioned strength of 59 are working in the State. Even Kamrup (M) has no sanctioned posts of senior Food Safety Officers.

In the Laboratory wing, the single post of Deputy Food Analyst is lying vacant. A total of 10 posts of Assistant Food Analyst are lying vacant as against the sanctioned 17 posts. Besides, 10 of the 29 sanctioned posts of Assistant Chemists are vacant. Moreover 20 of the 30 sanctioned posts of third-grade and fourth-grade employees are also vacant.

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