With the provision of five-year imprisonment for producing adulterated food and life term imprisonment for illegal hoarding, the draft of ‘Production, Storage, Movement, Transportation, Supply, Distribution and Marketing of Food Grains (Prevention of Prejudicial Activity) Bill, 2023’ has been approved.
The Cabinet approved the draft law at its meeting on Monday. The meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was held in the Cabinet room of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain briefed the journalists at the Secretariat.
Fines and prison terms for various periods will be imposed for violation or irregularities in food production, and its storage, transfer, transportation, supply, distribution and marketing, he said.
The Cabinet Secretary said, in the proposed law, the provision of imprisonment from two to five years and a fine of Tk 10 lakh has been made for providing unsafe or adulterated food products in the market.
Violators of this law shall be punished in mobile and food safety courts. Hoarding food in the hope of more profit will be punishable by life imprisonment, he added.
He further said that adulteration of foodstuff, stocking for creating artificial crisis, underselling, and all such offenses will be punished.
On April 19 in 2022, the draft law was tabled in the Cabinet and given approval in principle.
Md Mahbub Hossain said that the draft of the proposed law has been prepared by combining the two previous laws.
“There are 20 sections in the law. If someone adulterates the food, then this act provides for two years imprisonment or a fine of Tk10 lakh or both,” he said.
Mentioning some clauses of the draft law, the secretary further said that the court has been given the jurisdiction to impose life imprisonment and fine if anyone stores foodstuff in violation of the law. In addition, in the law, the provision of punishment for various periods in case of irregularities in the production and marketing of food grains has been mentioned in the proposed law.
