"Heroic Sam" Tukaram Mundhe of Maharashtra

A viral video from Pune has made Tukaram Mundhe, Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration of Maharashtra, an unlikely celebrity. In a video that went viral as "Unstoppable Tukaram", we see the crowd getting up and giving a standing ovation as Mundhe enters the stage at Bal Gandharva Ranga Mandir, Pune. Several people were filming the scene from their phones at the time.

This is because, as the Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration, Mundhe is leading one of the most stringent food safety crackdowns seen in the state. An IAS officer from the 2005 batch, Mundhe has, in about two decades of civil service, gained a reputation for enforcing the law without any compromise, earning him nearly 25 transfers, something which his supporters say is proof that he does not succumb to pressure. He is known by the sobriquet "Singham," like the tough cop from fiction and support of personalities like industrialist Harsh Goenka.

Within six months since he became the FDA's head, Mundhe's team has completed over 1,100 inspections in restaurants, food processing firms and distributors in Maharashtra. About a hundred restaurants have been forced to shut down with their licences suspended; some of the famous restaurants include Noor Mohammadi Hotel, Shalimar Restaurant, K. Rustom & Co., Cricket Club of India, Willingdon Sports Club and Juhu Gymkhana. Some of the violations mentioned by the inspectors include usage of expired products, fungus-infected meat, recycled cooking oil, pest infections and poor storage techniques.

The initiative has not been without criticism despite claims from Mundhe that the objective is food safety enforcement. The hospitality business in particular has voiced their complaints regarding certain ways of inspection. The Bombay High Court, on its part, has requested that food safety laws be implemented in a consistent and uniform way, including checking court canteens after complaints by judges.