Lab ill-equipped for cola tests
THE DISTRICT administration?s proposed drive to test colas for pesticides may end in a whimper. The State-owned Government Public Analyst Lab at Aliganj is not equipped to conduct the residual pesticide test. But, what all does the lab lack in? All the chemicals used in the pesticide-specific tests, besides eight instruments, including Gas Mask Chromatograph. ?Don?t even dream of testing the residual pesticide in cold drinks in this lab. Do you know how we conduct the tests here, we are struggling to have proper facilities for simple tests,? said an official of the lab.
THE DISTRICT administration’s proposed drive to test colas for pesticides may end in a whimper.
The State-owned Government Public Analyst Lab at Aliganj is not equipped to conduct the residual pesticide test.
But, what all does the lab lack in? All the chemicals used in the pesticide-specific tests, besides eight instruments, including Gas Mask Chromatograph.
“Don’t even dream of testing the residual pesticide in cold drinks in this lab. Do you know how we conduct the tests here, we are struggling to have proper facilities for simple tests,” said an official of the lab.
The lab officials had submitted the list of 8 instruments required to test residual pesticides to the government in July. “But, still nothing has been done so far,” said a highly placed lab official. The officials say besides poor infrastructure, the lab is struggling to counter the shortage of manpower by calling the technical staff on duty even when they are on holiday.
Besides, the exhausted staff the lab is not having the modern apparatus, which are must for conducting the sensitive tests like residual pesticide.
The lab has only 16 junior analytist assistants against the approved strength of 69. There are only 6 senior analytical assistants against the approved strength of 12, to test about 2,2000 food samples per year.
The only insecticide analyst of the lab was not ready to comment. But, he admitted the lab even doesn’t have the latest BIS guidelines for the residue testing in the lab. “Without proper instruments no test is possible,” he said.
Assistant Lab Analyst PD Dayal admitted the staff crunch in the lab and came out heavily on the officials blaming the lab for poor test quality and taking more time for testing the samples. He defended the shortcomings of the lab by saying, “ Inspite of staff crunch we are doing an admirable job, we are testing 22000 samples per year, under the PFA. We are bound to test the samples within 40 days. We always give the report within 40 days to the concerned departments.”