Nagar Reporter: CCC’s modern food laboratory has two fully equipped microbiological and microchemical labs. State-of-the-art food quality testing equipment worth crores of rupees has been installed in the lab. But the lab built at a cost of Tk 34 crore is not doing any work for checking the quality of food. Manpower posts have not been created in eight long years. Test reports are not being accepted due to a lack of quality test signing authority. Chittagong City Corporation has not included manpower in the revenue sector for a long time. Chemicals worth lakhs of rupees for use in the lab have expired. At present, 8 people, including 2 technical people, are engaged in guarding the laboratory.
When asked, CCC’s chief executive officer, Sheikh Muhammad Touhidul Islam, told the media that the lab has been inactive for a long time. ADB has built the lab by spending crores of tk’s. The mayor asked to take initiative to start the lab soon. Manpower must be appointed. As a result, we are taking initiative to start the lab.
In January last year, the operation started in the modern food laboratory built in the Hamzarbagh area of the city. The lab was built with joint funding from ADB and the government. Later, in 2021, he handed over the responsibility to ADB City Corporation. In the beginning, there were about 36 technical and other people in the company, but currently 8 people are working. As the company was not included in the revenue sector of the city corporation, the employees left the job. Presently, 2 chemists are working in the microbiological and microchemical labs. As there is no work, they are spending idle time.
The three-story building houses the microbiological lab on the second floor and the microchemical lab on the third floor. Two labs are equipped with modern machines, storage facilities, and all equipment for quality testing of food products. There are several machines worth crores of rupees. The machinery and furniture in the lab are all arranged. Those concerned said that the inspectors of the health department of the city corporation used to send different food samples for checking the quality. Since last 7/8 months, they have not sent any samples. As a result, many valuable machines are losing their functionality due to the non-operation of the lab. Many chemicals stored in the lab have expired. Chittagong does not have a food laboratory with such advanced technology at the government level.
Those concerned said that the lab test report is not acceptable in court. Because there is no signing authority for the test report in the lab, the report is not being evaluated administratively. No samples are coming for testing from any organization. Safe Food Authority does not have its own lab in Chittagong. The safe food officer of the organization, Farhan Islam, said we have contracts with some laboratories in Dhaka and Chittagong. As a result, if necessary, we test these labs.
Those concerned said that the district administration and city corporation often run anti-adulteration mobile courts in the city. Initially, the samples collected during the campaign were sent to this lab at CCC for quality control. If the lab was up and running, CCC would have generated a lot of revenue a year.
A letter was written to the Food Safety Authority to provide the chief health officer of the signing authority corporation with the report, an official of CCC’s health department said. But still not approved. There is shortage of manpower to run labs. Manpower should be appointed.
