The High Court has a set a deadline of May 5 for the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority to file a report on the government’s measures to ensure the supply of safe food for the people.
The bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil gave the order on Thursday (Mar 14) after hearing a petition.
It also issued a rule asking whye the government’s failure to ensure safe food will not be declared illegal.
In May last year, lawyer Shammi Akhtar had pressed a petition with the court in the public interest based on a media report about the quality of water, published earlier the same month.
After a hearing in December, the court instructed ‘illegal and unsafe’ jar and bottled water to be removed from stores. The BSTI and law enforcers were tasked with carrying out the order.
The court had also ordered the BSTI to submit a report a report after testing water in bottles and jars currently sold on the market.
The BSTI report, filed with the court on Jan 21, found five companies permitted to sell water in bottles and jars provide ‘unhealthy and undrinkable water’.
The five brands named are Fruits and Flavous Ltd’s ‘Yummy Yummy’, Sinha Bangladesh Traders Limited’s ‘Aqua Mineral’, Crystal Food and Beverage’s ‘CFB’, Orotech Trade and Technology’s ‘Osma’ and Sree Kundeshari Pharmacy Limited’s ‘SiNMiN’.
On Thursday, the petitioner filed a supplementary writ, when the court issued the rule and ordered the food safety authority to file a report.