Vinod Yadav | Mumbai<\/span>9 minutes ago<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Credit: X\/@Tukaram_IndIAS<\/span><\/p>\n Maharashtra\u2019s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner, Tukaram Mundhe, has been constantly in the news. From issuing notices to Bollywood stars over cardamom (elaichi) advertisements to taking strict action against major brands like Domino’s, Mundhe has built a reputation as a tough, no-nonsense officer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In an exclusive 12-minute conversation, Mundhe spoke about his ongoing crackdown on food adulteration, plans to target the gutkha mafia, and why he does not consider himself a movie-style “Singham.”<\/p>\n Here is the exclusive interview:<\/strong><\/span> Q: Do you face pressure calls after taking action against big, well-known brands?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tukaram Mundhe: For us, no one is big or small. We take action strictly according to the law whenever rules are violated. To date, I have never received any orders to either “take action” or “stop action” in these matters.<\/p>\n Q: Why weren’t such strict actions taken before you took charge?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mundhe: Actions were taken earlier as well, but their scale and public visibility might have been different. After the Food Safety Act came into effect in 2006, the rules became clearer over time, and the scope of action expanded. It took some time for the entire administrative system to be fully ready.<\/p>\n Q: Have you received threats or bribes while targeting multi-crore companies and mafias?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mundhe: I don’t think anyone has the courage to threaten me directly. Everyone knows what kind of officer they are dealing with.<\/p>\n Tukaram Mundhe received the Best Collector award in 2015-16.<\/span><\/p>\n Q: There is a common belief that governments only use honest officers as a ‘weapon’ or tool. What is your view?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mundhe: The government utilizes the skills of every officer appropriately. My duty is simply to work with complete honesty and dedication within the framework of the rules.<\/p>\n Q: Some politicians supported you in the Assembly, while others opposed you. Have you had clashes with ministers?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mundhe: No such situation has ever occurred. It is the privilege of public representatives to express their views in the legislature. In administration, we have a defined set of rules, and we always work within those boundaries.<\/p>\n Q: The public has given you a movie-like ‘Singham’ image. How do you see this?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mundhe: I am no ‘Singham.’ I am just a government officer. As the FDA Commissioner, my only goal is to work honestly so that the public gets safe food and medicines.<\/p>\n Tukaram Mundhe passed the UPSC exam on his fourth attempt.<\/span><\/p>\n Q: You have taken action on a large scale. What is the conviction rate in court?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mundhe: So far, we have issued 650 to 700 improvement notices and suspended the licenses of 165 to 175 establishments. We are strongly presenting our cases in court through competent legal officers.<\/p>\n Q: Will milk adulterators be booked under the strict MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act)?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mundhe: Given the seriousness, organized nature, and widespread impact of this crime, we are exploring legal options. Wherever the legal conditions for MCOCA are met, we will look into applying this strict law.<\/p>\n Q: Gutkha is still being sold despite the ban. What is your plan to stop this?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mundhe: We are registering cases under the relevant laws. To completely destroy the network of the gutkha mafia, we will apply MCOCA against them if necessary. No syndicate playing with public health will be spared.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vinod Yadav | Mumbai9 minutes ago Credit: X\/@Tukaram_IndIAS Maharashtra\u2019s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner, Tukaram Mundhe, has been constantly in the news. From issuing notices to Bollywood stars over cardamom (elaichi) advertisements to taking strict action against major brands like Domino’s, Mundhe has built a reputation as a tough, no-nonsense officer. In an exclusive…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30080,29642,30082,30081,28716,24554,30083,30079],"class_list":["post-33918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation","tag-fda-commissioner","tag-food-adulteration","tag-government-officer","tag-gutkha-mafia","tag-maharashtra-fda","tag-maharashtra-news","tag-singham","tag-tukaram-mundhe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Credit:](\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/20\/screenshot-2026-08-20-105415_1787205553.png\")
<\/picture><\/div>\n![\"Tukaram](\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/521\/2026\/08\/18\/tukaram-mundhe-ias-commissioner_1787053215.jpg\")
<\/picture><\/div>\n![\"Tukaram](\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/521\/2026\/08\/18\/tukaram-mundhe-2005-batch_1787053981.jpg\")
<\/picture><\/div>\n