“Had Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) department not abandoned usual practice of market checking last year, the traders won’t have dared to supply watermelons and other fruits in pre-ripening stage into Kashmir markets”
Though doubts about the quality of vegetables and fruits are not new to consumers in Kashmir but this year the supply of watermelons in pre-ripening stage to markets was unnoticed well in time with greater sensitivity. While the fact remains that watermelons and several other fruits are flooded into valley markets much before their usual timing and days before the holy month of Ramadan, the people this year noticed it with greater sensitivity that with holy month of Ramadan advancing by 10 days annually the supply of watermelons in pre-ripening stages is also being advanced year after year . Given the increasing tendency of traders to supply watermelons to valley markets before the commencement of the holy month of Ramadan there is every possibility that timing of the supply watermelons will change with change in timing of the holly month of Ramadan and as such it is for the Government to put curbs on the supply of water melons and other fruits before their usual timing to reduce the rising fears about their safety for the consumers in Kashmir. Had Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) department not abandoned usual practice of market checking last year, the traders won’t have dared to supply watermelons and other fruits in pre-ripening stage into Kashmir markets. So abandoning market checking by FCS & CA department was almost tantamount to compromising the quality of fruits, vegetables and other food products. In fact market checking is not only about containing prices of essential commodities but it is also about checking the supply of unsafe food products to markets in Kashmir like other parts of the country.
“For all practical purposes market checking not only for the sake of market checking but for sampling and stringent punishment to guilty through a transparent investigation process could most probably end the continuing chaos and confusion over the quality of watermelons in Kashmir. So an everlasting respite and relief to consumers in Kashmir does not lie only in ban on supply of fruits and vegetables in pre-ripening stages to markets but in smoothening the market checking practices with a legal sanction to the procedures of inspection and process of a transparent investigation. “
Though Food Safety Drugs & Food Control Organisation Kashmir woke up in time by directing the concerned officials to carry out rigorous inspection of fruits, vegetables and other food items along with the sampling but a bigger message going to government after the ongoing row over supply of watermelons in pre-ripening stage is the urgent need for full revival of decades old market checking practice jointly by Food Safety Drugs & Food Control Organisation and FCS&CA Department where enforcement wing created decades ago for market checking is still existing. So for all practical purposes market checking not only for the sake of market checking but for sampling and stringent punishment to guilty through a transparent investigation process could most probably end the continuing chaos and confusion over the quality of watermelons in Kashmir. So an everlasting respite and relief to consumers in Kashmir does not lie only in ban on supply of fruits and vegetables in pre-ripening stages to markets but in smoothening the market checking practices with a legal sanction to the procedures of inspection and process of a transparent investigation.
