Mumbai: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is empowered to impound or cancel licences issued to the vendors, but offenders are not liable for any strict penal action.
This flaw in the law allows past offenders to bounce back in the business as per the cash flow, said FDA commissioner Dr Pallavi Darade. As the law only helps them to take their licences for a period of time, the offenders now order for supplies in batches, so that if one batch is found faulty, the other can still be used.
Dr Darade told this paper, “The offenders work on a cash-flow basis. If they have enough capital to get a new batch after one adulterated batch is seized, they do so.”
She added, “Impounding licences or slapping them with fines are the only things the FDA can do. If they happen to resume their business next year, we cannot stop them, but only keep an eye on their quality of food.”
Dr Darade said there would be a dip in seizures as compared to the previous years in the wake of the drives and training given to the vendors and stall owners well in advance.
