Public health at stake!

Taking all these foods and fruits might cause serious health problems. Children are more vulnerable to this unsafe food.

Though it is late, we are assured that the government has started taking legal actions against those who are involved in such businesses.

Laws should be made tough to restrict sale of unsafe food.

Good indeed that the government officials have started digging into production and sale of adulterated foods.

The drive should be a sustained one and people need to be made aware of the quality of foods that they are ingesting.

Md. Naim Uddin Uttara, Dhaka

My heartfelt thanks to the reporters of The Daily Star and The Ittefaq for publishing a series of reports on adulterated and poisoned foods. I also appreciate the steps taken by the home ministry to form mobile courts to stop sale of adulterated foods and substandard goods. I praise Dhaka City Corporation for forming a team which raided some shops and filed cases against them.

I hope this drive will be continued by the government on a permanent basis.

People are demanding safe food and stern action against food adulterators and urging the authorities to continue the drive and to enact new laws to ensure safe food in the country.

Mostafa Kamal East Shewrapara, Dhaka

Undoubtedly what the mobile courts are doing is a good thing (and all credit goes to all the dailies involved in focusing on this matter) and we can only hope that it will yield positive results. Since they have undertaken this venture, it is my belief that they should carry it out properly. In the western world, restaurants can be shut down for little violations and here restaurants and eateries are being fined as little as Tk. 800! That amount is nothing for the restaurant owners , they will pay and continue to take risks with our lives.

Our bodies, our health. Let people learn the consequences of their actions, greed and irresponsibility, to a point so that they and others never do it again.

What have we become? What sort of people live in a society where there is not an iota of truth or decency in our souls? How do we sleep at nights when we can poison food that people eat, when nothing is 100% pure or original or unadulterated? I remember once this young man had come with an uncle of mine from London and he got himself the shortest possible crew cut just because he thought that there may be no barbers here in Dhaka and I had sneered and asked if he thinks we live in a barbaric society? Apparently, we live in a society far worse than a barbaric one, we live in one devoid of any morality, honesty, decency, ethics, honour, nobility and any quality remotely resembling these. We are so caught up in our lust and greed for money that we seem not even to fear the Almighty anymore. Well we may escape answering here where time ends but I strongly recommend that we remember that eternity awaits us with open and 'fiery' arms.

Zeenat, On e-mail

Thanks to the mobile court constituted by the DCC who have booked some restaurants, hotels, and sweetmeat shops who were cheating us by offering us stale and adulterated foods. Can't believe that those restaurants which we often used to visit to satisfy our taste buds, were actually slow-poisoning us.

Anjana, Gulshan-1, Dhaka

I must admit that the steps taken to introduce mobile courts to inspect foods in various restaurants are a great effort. Also thanks to the media which has played a vital role in repeatedly highlighting this crucial issue in the newspapers.

A few days back, I read in the newspaper that one of the restaurants was fined for using imported ketchup, which did not have BSTI label on it.

My question is, why were these being sold or imported in the market without the BSTI labels, in the first place. Where were the authorities responsible for monitoring these issues all these days? Why are these popping up suddenly? We need to dig into the issue. We need to find out the root cause behind these and take tough measures to stop these from happening.

However, we must not forget that this has to be a routine affair.

Sabiha Naz, Panthopath, Dhaka