Green activists here on Friday demanded the government take effective steps to ensure marketing of safe iftar items and fruits in the holy month of Ramadan to protect people from serious health hazards.They came up with their demand at a human chain jointly organised by Poribesh Bachao Andolon (Poba) and Pallima Green in front of Malibagh Kitchen Market in the city.
Poba chairman Abu Naser Khan, Pallima Green president Hafizur Rahman, Poba joint general secretary Syed Monwar Hossain, Poba coordinator Atiq Morshed, general secretary of Peace Ifma Hossain and senior vice president of Dhaka Mohanagar Shop Owners Association Rezaul Islam Monto, among others, spoke at the programme.
The green activists said contaminated and adulterated food items have flooded the city markets amid the holy Ramadan. A section of unscrupulous traders driven by their greed for windfall profits uses various chemicals, including formalin, in fruits and fish to keep those fresh for long, which adversely affects human health.
They said access to safe food is a right of consumers, but people are being deprived of their rights. Food adulteration and mixing chemicals in food goes rampant in almost all food items –- from baby food to vegetable and meat to fish, they added.
The environmentalists said unless the government takes appropriate and effective steps, hapless people will have no option but to take cehimcal-treated food and fruits during Ramadan, inviting various health problems.
They also demanded an integrated move to ensure the sale of safe food, more stringent punishment, including hefty fines for those to be found responsible for food contamination, setting up a control room, and launching surprise raids on food warehouses and factories by anti-adulteration teams. – UNB
