Udupi: Udupi district Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis instructed the food safety officers of the district to arrange a workshop on food safety for all the administrative heads of the temples in the district. The aim is to make sure that they take the utmost care while preparing and distributing prasadam in the temples.
She gave these instructions during a meeting of the District Food Safety and Quality Advisory Committee and the District Tobacco Prohibition Cell at her office in Rajathadri on Friday, December 21.
Quoting the Sulvadi temple prasadam poisoning incident in the Chamarajanagara District, the DC directed the food and safety officers to organise a workshop for the heads of temple administrations and train them in the process of food safety. She also instructed her team to take the necessary steps in implementing certain safety measures like fixing CCTV cameras in the temple kitchen, restricting the entry of unauthorized persons into the temple kitchens and checking the quality of the ‘naivedya prasadam’ or the food that is prepared before distributing to the devotees.
In the meeting, the DC instructed the owners of fish transport vehicles plying to Goa from the Udupi district, to collect certificates from the food safety officers before their departure. The food and safety officers of the district were also directed to regularly visit schools to check the quality of food being served under the mid-day meal scheme and to also conduct regular inspections of the godown where the food items are stored, check their quality and report to her.
Take appropriate action against banned plastics
The Tobacco Prevention Cell of the Corporation were instructed to take appropriate action against shop owners if plastic bags are found during their raids for tobacco products in their jurisdiction. For this purpose, she told the officers to train their member so that they can identify banned plastics if found in the shops.
Beaches are ‘No smoking zones’
DC Priyanka also instructed the tobacco prevention officers to put up ‘No smoking’ boards in all the beaches of the district. She also directed them to install ‘caution boards’, informing the public about the fine applicable for violating the rules.
During the meeting district vigilance officer, Dr Vasudev informed that awareness programmes about the ill effects of tobacco usage were conducted in 46 schools of the District.
District Health and Family welfare officer Dr Rohini and other district level officers were present.
