Kashmir reeks – literally. The stench isn’t just from 3,000-3,500 kg of rotten meat seized in a single week; it’s from a Food Safety bureaucracy that has turned vigilance into theatre and regulation into ransom. Authorities themselves admit they’re now recovering putrid meat thrown on roadsides, nallahs, even rivers – because the racket feels cornered and is dumping evidence in our public spaces.
Meanwhile, the same department proudly announces “action”: Forty four street vendors fined a grand total of Rs 56,000 – a mockery of deterrence that wouldn’t scare a tea stall, let alone a supply chain peddling poison.
Srinagar has 6,000+ street vendors – and years after “smart vending zones” were promised, the plan drags while footpaths and food hygiene collapse together. Even with “zones,” key areas remain clogged because enforcement is a wink-and-nod game.
Courts had to step in: the J&K High Court ordered removal of encroachments and required NOCs for issuing hawker/vendor permissions – a judicial SOS because the executive wouldn’t do its job.
The Food & Drugs Administration: eyes wide shut
Let’s be blunt: street food safety is not rocket science. India’s own framework demands registration/licensing of vendors and basic hygiene compliance under FSSAI. Training modules and audits exist. What’s missing is will – and independence from local cartels.
If inspectors were truly “on vigil throughout the day,” we wouldn’t be measuring rot in metric tons and penalties in peanuts. Either the FDA is outgunned, outnumbered, or on the take. Pick your poison.
Who owns this mess – LG’s Raj Bhavan or Omar’s Durbar?
Stop the buck-passing. Today, the LG administration runs J&K. The responsibility – and the tools – are theirs: ordinance powers, task forces, prosecution, municipal coordination, budget lines, and the political cover to bulldoze mafias. If Omar Abdullah wants back in with promises of “statehood and course correction,” good – then say, in writing, what enforcement architecture you’ll build and fund on Day 1. Until then, this is on the present government.
Rotten meat didn’t just appear; it was allowed – by inspectors who didn’t inspect, officers who didn’t enforce, and politicians who didn’t prioritize lives over photo-ops. If we can’t keep flies off our food and filth off our streets, what exactly is governance doing – other than writing press releases? And engaging public in absolute nonsense.
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