Opposition Leader Raushon Ershad has asked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take effective measures to stop the use of formalin in food.
Published : 28 Jun 2014, 04:26 PM
“Stop the use of this poison if you are truly the daughter of Bangabandhu,” she said during a discussion on the proposed budget on Saturday.
“It is your (Hasina’s) responsibility,” Raushon Ershad said recommending harsh punishment for food adulteration.
She wondered why those mixing formalin in fruits were not punished.
“The crime will go on if it is not punished,” the Jatiya Party (JP) leader said.
Formalin is usually used in laboratories, hospitals, tanneries, textiles and hatcheries. But it is being widely used in perishable food stuff to make them appear fresh with harmful effects on the human body.
Ershad recalled Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman passing an Act to prevent food adulteration in 1974 with provisions for even capital punishment for the offence.
“Where’s that law now? If he (Bangabandhu) could think about it, why can’t you?” asked the Opposition Leader.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed on June 17 told Parliament that 1,073 tonnes of formalin had been brought into the country in the past four years.
He said there were no agents for importing formalin.
Ahmed later said the ‘Formalin Control Act’ was being finalised with provisions for life imprisonment for spraying food with the deadly chemical.
Dhaka police have recently launched an anti-formalin drive and set up a number of checkpoints at different entry points to the capital.
However, the move has not been well received by the fruit vendors who observed strikes protesting against the testing.
Pointing to Hasina, Raushon Ershad said, “The people are not eating good food like you do ... everything is polluted. How’ll we survive?”
She humorously pointed to the funny side of eating adulterated food.
“Our bodies won’t decompose since we are eating formalin-mixed foods ... it’s a good thing.”
Urging the government to take a tough stance on the harmful chemical, she said, “Formalin is mixed with everything from fish to coriander leaves.
“What will the people eat in this situation? The Formalin Control Act is ambiguous.
“Seventeen-thousand tonnes of formalin came into Bangladesh. It went into our stomachs.”