Post News Network
Cuttack, Feb 20: A day after the district administration imposed a 15-day ban on the sale of dahibara, gupchup, lassi and sugarcane juice in the city to contain the spread of jaundice, a Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) squad Friday destroyed 1.5 quintals of eatables including vegetables near Badambadi, Link Road, Cantonment Road and College Square.
Each squad comprises a food inspector and health officials. According to sources, no fine was collected from the vendors. Earlier, following a directive from Chief Secretary GC Pati in a videoconference Thursday, the district administration requested traders to stop selling food items for 15 days in order to check the spread of jaundice.
Four groups of squads formed by the administration started fanning out in the city, destroying gupchups and dahibaras being sold by 55 traders Thursday.
The squads persuaded the traders to cooperate with the district administration in view of the jaundice outbreak.
Each squad is led by a food inspector and health officials. Meanwhile, nearly 20,000 traders in the city who eke out their living by selling gupchup and dahibara in the city are in a fix following the government’s directive.
The Chief Secretary had directed the district collector, chief district medical officer (CDMO) and the police commissioner to implement the order in all earnest.
Talking to the media, CMC commissioner Gyana Das said the corporation is submitting a daily report to the collector on the amount of food destroyed by the squads. The collector will in turn submit the report to the state government.
“The raids on these banned food items would continue till March-end,” Das added.