09/01/2012

U.P. phase I polls rescheduled

The first phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections for 60 seats, scheduled for February 4, has been re-scheduled. The new date will be announced soon.

A brief announcement made by the Election Commission here said the change was necessitated by uncertainty about the date of the Barawafat festival, which might fall on February 4.

The second phase is scheduled for February 8. Indications are that the first phase will be held on either February 5 or 6, and the rest of the schedule will not be affected.

Plea on Food Safety Act

: The Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants Association has called for deferring the implementation of the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act 2006, which was notified on August 5, 2011.

The Act mandates various qualifications for Food Safety Officers and Inspectors which entail a minimum training period of two years after its implementation had begun. Hence, the association said that it was imperative that more time be given to the food business operators, who were mostly illiterate, to acquaint themselves with various provisions of the Act.

Association president S.P. Jeyapragasam presented the memorandum to V.N. Gaur, Chief Executive Officer of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSA), who was in the city recently to address awareness programme on the FSS Act.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 as a statutory body for laying down science based standards for articles of food and regulating manufacturing, processing, distribution, sale and import of food.

Fines under this new Act were over 100 times when compared to the erstwhile Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. The law should give time and opportunity to the people to set right their deficiencies, he said, adding that the maximum penalty must be brought down to Rs. 25,000 instead of the present Rs. 1 lakh.

Before enforcing the Act, the association said that the Central Government must establish quality control food analytical laboratories in all districts and also fix reasonable charges as the Act mandates strict quality levels. Also, private laboratories must be provided accreditation and encouraged through subsidies.

Also, any changes regarding labels in the law should be allowed to take effect only after 12 months so that traders could change logistics and production process accordingly.

With agricultural practices varying across regions in the country, the produce and its contents like nutritional values would also change. Hence, the FSS Act should allow for declaring ‘approximate' nutritional values in labels rather than ‘exact' values

Mr. Jeyapragasam also called for providing adequate representation of various food product producers in the Central Advisory Committee.

Jayalalithaa announces memorial for Pennycuick

Amid the simmering dispute between Tamil Nadu and Kerala over the Mullaperiyar Dam, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Sunday announced that her government would build a memorial to John Pennycuick, the British engineer who constructed the dam to overcome the drought in the Vaigai delta region in the 19{+t}{+h}century.

The 2500 square feet ‘manimandapam' with a statue of Pennycuick would come up on the premises of the TANGEDCO office at the Lower Camp, Ms Jayalalithaa said in a statement.

The cost of the project would be Rs 1 crore. Pennycuick's grandson would be invited for its inauguration, she said.

Ms Jayalalithaa said her government had decided to create a Manimandapam following requests from the people in the southern districts including Theni.

Gratitude

“They want to express their gratitude to Pennycuick, who constructed the dam, which is still in good condition and will survive many hundred years to come,” she added.

The Chief Minister said Colonel Pennycuick, who came to India as an Army Engineer, decided to divert the west-flowing river's culmination in the Bay of Bengal towards the East so that it could irrigate lakhs of acres of dry land depending only on Vaigai river.

Though Pennycuick and other British Engineers went ahead with the construction, braving the nature's fury and the dangers of poisonous insects and wild animals, the construction works were disrupted by relentless rain. Since he could not get adequate funds from the British government, Pennycuick went to England and sold his family property to mobilise money to fund the project, which was completed in 1895.

Ms Jayalalithaa said the dam was inaugurated by Lord Wenlock, the then Governor of the Chennai Presidency.

It resulted in irrigation of 2.23 lakh acres in Theni, Dindigul, Madurai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram districts.