Sir,
The recent confiscation of rotten meat, chicken, and fish in Jammu & Kashmir has once again exposed the dark underbelly of food adulteration—a silent but lethal assault on public health. These are not isolated incidents; they represent a deeper rot in the system where questions arise on how such hazardous products enter the market, how they bypass inspection, where they are stored, and under whose watch they are manufactured. When religious scholars in Kashmir urge people to refrain from consuming such products, it is not merely a spiritual advisory but an alarm bell ringing against a grave societal threat. The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, defines such offences with utmost seriousness, treating the sale or distribution of unsafe food as a heinous crime, punishable with heavy fines, cancellation of licenses, and in extreme cases where consumption leads to death, life imprisonment. Yet, despite such stringent provisions, enforcement remains patchy, inspections often symbolic, and accountability elusive. Adulteration, in my view, is the father of all scams—from “Masala to Milk”—because unlike financial scams that rob wealth, this crime steals health, dignity, and even life itself. In Jammu & Kashmir’s context, where cold storage facilities, supply chains, and inspection agencies are limited and sometimes compromised, the risk is multiplied. Rotten and adulterated food is not just a health hazard; it is a form of bio-economic warfare against society, eroding trust in the market, destroying the livelihoods of honest traders, and burdening the healthcare system. The fight against this menace must be multi-pronged: stricter checkpoints at entry points, scientific storage protocols, random surprise inspections, public awareness campaigns, and most importantly, exemplary punishment to deter offenders. No crime is as insidious as the one that hides in our kitchens and on our plates. Adulteration is slow poisoning disguised as trade, and if we fail to act decisively now, it will not just sicken our bodies but also corrode the moral and legal fabric of our state. Jammu & Kashmir must treat this as a public emergency, not a routine administrative matter, because in this battle, delay is death.
Tejinder Singh
Jammu
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel