The Centre has called upon the States and Union Territories to strictly enforce the laws on food safety. Responding to a calling attention on the issue of adulteration of food in Lok Sabha today, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Mr. Dinesh Trivedi said that there is a need to keep a vigil on the activities of unscrupulous elements who are playing havoc with the health and lives of consumers. He also stressed the need for speedy trials so that the perpetrators of these heinous crimes are brought to book as fast as possible. Pointing out that the responsibility of implementing of food safety laws rests with the states, Mr. Trivedi however assured that the Centre will do everything possible to check this malpractice. He said that the Centre has already brought under the common umbrella of all the food Safety and Standards Authority of India, all the food related laws to deal with the issue in a holistic manner. Admitting that there have been reports about cases of misuse of animal fat and urea in milk products, Mr. Trivedi said that Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab have shown high percentage of adulteration in these products. He said that the government had prohibited import of milk and milk products from China in 2008 following the reports of death of children due to adulteration in milk products. He informed the House that the percentage of food items has shown a decline from 8.44 percent of the samples collected in 2006 to 7.73 percent in 2008. Earlier, raising the issue through the call attention Mr. Jagdambika Pal of the Congress expressed grave concern over increasing cases of food adulteration. He said that the adulteration amounts to slow poisoning and the laws against food adulteration should be strictly enforced. He said that there is a need to set up more laboratories for checking samples of food for adulteration. He also said that the punishment for those indulging in adulteration under the present laws is very less. The House witnessed noisy scenes as some more members wanted to speak on the subject. This was objected to by the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mr. V. Narayanasamy saying only those listed for raising the issue are entitled to speak. As the din continued, the Chair adjourned the House ten minutes before lunch.