The fruits & vegetables are high in nutrition value and are one of the key components of human diet but at the same time they are contaminated with Pesticides such as Calcium Carbide and Oxytocin which are being used in fruits & vegetables for ripening purpose.
Pesticides residues ingested in human body through food and water can lead to serious health problems and can disrupts the endocrine system and lead to hormonal imbalance, impaired brain development, behavioral and many other disorders.
In a recent development, the honorable High Court of Delhi has counseled the State Government over the issue of high level of pesticides in fruits & vegetables. The government has constituted a cell to look into the matter to ensure the safety of the people.
The “Pesticide Residue Management Cell” has been formed after the consultations and meetings between the government officials, industry and other stakeholders. The activities of the cell will be controlled by the Commissioner of Food Safety. The court also sought the information about the measures to be taken to control the situation and to spread awareness among people.
The court has said that the samples of fruits & vegetables should be collected from different locations to check the amount of chemicals present in them.
The state govt. has already started working to launch different measures to educate people about pesticides and is also preparing a report on account of pesticides used in fruits & vegetables.
The state government has communicated to the High Court that they lack infrastructure to carry out inspection as there are only 28 varieties of pesticides that can be tested in its laboratories. The court has asked the government to create better infrastructure so that the team could work efficiently to control the situation.
The next hearing on this is scheduled in the third week of May and the state govt. will prepare and present to the court the entire summary of the steps taken in this direction.
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