Mid-Day Opinion: FDA must not allow its crackdown to get hijacked

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The focus is on clean food cooked and served in hygienic surroundings. That is the crux when focusing on the raids that have taken place on several outlets, revocation of food licenses and cracking down on a slew of violations in restaurants, hotels, and clubs.

We featured a front-page report about a tussle that has broken out between Maharashtra's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the state's hotel and restaurant industry. While the FDA intensified its crackdown on food safety violations across the state, the Indian Hotel & Restaurant Association (AHAR) said action is fine but wants enforcement to be legally sound, transparent and applied uniformly to licensed and unlicensed food vendors alike. Most importantly, it said that certain fakes are piggybacking on this current drive with self-styled RTI activists and alleged extortionists trying to pressure establishments through fear and coercion for freebies or to pay up.

While we are all for clean food, who isn't, and the action these raids should hopefully ensure, an entire campaign will have questions on credibility if fakes are allowed to hijack it. These extortionists or goondas in the guise of activists need to be fearlessly exposed by their targets. Approach the police if they are pressuring or blackmailing one. Check with Mr Tukaram Mundhe, the man leading the raids, whether so-and-so person is part of the legit team or simply impersonating an FDA officer. He may even be a local don, jumping in to cash in on the current campaign. An initiative's success is forged on clean officers, credibility and transparency. These fakes will puncture the confidence the public has in these measures.