Editorial
Look, who protests?
The traders, not the eaters of adulterated food !
Food traders have been observing a two-day strike to protest the government drive against sale of adulterated and rotten foods in the city's restaurants and fast food shops. We have already touched on some of the concerns of food sellers through these columns, but have been taken aback by their sweeping decision to shutter down. This is an insult to the injury already inflicted upon people by their purveying substandard food to them. The strike can further alienate them from the people, if only because the magnitude of the problem of adulteration exposed by the mobile courts, which may have been only the tip of the iceberg, has shaken their belief in the food they eat in general. The findings of the roving teams are only a confirmation of newspaper reports published over the years. But the food traders' associations are not prepared yet to use their clout to get things right in their own domain. If they had paid heed to the whole lot of previous reports on adulteration, the situation that they find themselves in at the moment would not have arisen in the first place. Anywhere the mobile courts visited they found evidence of spurious ingredients or stale foodstuffs. We know that not all food sellers in the city are guilty of the crime, but what has been revealed so far points to widespread profiteering at the expense of public health which reflects adversely on the image of the food chain operators, like it or not. The elements engaged in selling substances unfit for human consumption have actually taken a clannish view of the whole issue whereas it's their collective responsibility to clean up their own house in response to a surging public demand for safe food. They can sell a wide variety of fresh and good food items and still make huge profits. There is something called business goodwill and, if it is lost with food, mind you, it could be lost for ever.
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