The office, which oversees 16 districts in the Western Development Region, has just 14 officials and a motorbike at disposal. [break]Though the office has long been demanding the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control for sufficient logistics, physical infrastructure and human resources to ensure effective market monitoring, the request has fallen on deaf ears so far.
“We have been facing difficulties in the absence of human resources, logistics and lab infrastructure,” said Kishore Khatri, chief of the office.
The post of food inspectors in most of the districts in the region has been lying vacant since long.
“Even the officials appointed for the purpose of market inspection have been assigned accounting and administrative jobs in the office due to human resources crunch,” added Khatri. He also said the existing food test lab in the region is not equipped enough to test quality of food being sold in the market.
Because of this, the office has been sending food samples collected from the market to Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) for lab test.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai recently instructed concerned officials to ensure effective monitoring in the market ahead of the festive season that begins in about a month. Recently appointed Western Regional Administrator Narayan Gopal Malego has also ordered the local administrations to inspect hotels and restaurants along highways and major roads in the region. However, local authorities have been failing to implement the instruction because of absence of necessary resources.
“How can we make market monitoring effective in the absence of manpower and necessary resources?” wondered Khatri. He also said the DFTQC has been ignoring their requests for necessary logistics and human resources for the office.
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