FSSAI has apprised all Commissioners of Food Safety and Officers-In-Charge of Food Safety in all States and UTs through its notification dated 11th January 2021 regarding an Addendum to the Guidelines on the requirement of No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) for grant/renewal/product modification of FSSAI license.
FSSAI has also referred to its modified directions dated 02 January 2018 which are as follows
FSSAI will consider applications seeking issue of new licenses, renewal of existing licenses and product modifications without insisting on NOC from CGWA in case of applicant industries (extracting groundwater) located in Safe, Semi-Critical, Critical areas.
In case of applicant industries (extracting groundwater) located in 872 over-exploited areas (other than 162 notified so far) seeking FSSAI License (renewal and product modification), FSSAI will consider those applications subject to acceptance of their applications for NOC by CGWA and meeting other eligibility criteria.
In so far as to grant of FSSAI license to new industries (extracting groundwater) located in 1034 overexploited (162 notified+ 872 shortly to be notified as overexploited) areas is concerned, no such requests shall be considered by FSSAI without NOC from CGWA. In the case of existing industries seeking renewal/product modifications in these areas, FSSAI shall consider applications of those industries which are purely seeking renewal or product modification within their existing capacity.
In 13 States/UTs wherever States/UTs have their own legislation on groundwater and management is being done through State Ground Water Authority or government orders, CGWA does not issue NOC for groundwater withdrawal applications shall be made to the respective State/UT Government by the FBOs in these States/UTs. NOC of the States/UTs shall be final in that case.
In this regard, FSSAI has now issued its fresh directions dated 11 January 2021, in view of the ‘Guidelines to control and regulate groundwater extraction in India” vide Notification Number 3289(E) dated 24 September 2020 (herein referred to as the Notification) and the Public Notice dated 26 October 2020 issues by CGWA (herein referred to as the Public Notice) the following provision mutatis mutandis is added at para (v) in the ibid instructions:
(v) As per the Para-1.0(v) of the Notification “Micro and Small Enterprises drawing groundwater less than 10cum/day” are exempt from seeking “No Objection Certificate for groundwater extraction and accordingly, the FBOs which fall under Micro & Small Enterprise category and the groundwater withdrawal for the project is less than 10 cum/day(-10 KLD) are exempted from obtaining NOC from the CGWA or the respective State Ground Water Authority for grant/ renewal/product modification of FSSAI License.
However, such FBOs shall be required to upload the Self-Declaration in the prescribed format attached below as Annexure-A while applying for grant/renewal/modification of FSSAI State as well as Central License as the case may be. The said exemptions shall be available to all the eligible FBOs across the country including for the States/UTs that have come out with their own groundwater abstraction guidelines/legislation and have their respective State Ground Water Authorities.”
The above guidelines are applicable with immediate effect and all the pending applications for obtaining new/renewal/modification of FSSAI licenses may be examined and processed by the concerned Licensing Authorities accordingly.
