Can you believe that in a meeting held at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Srinagar between the manufacturers of food products and the State officials have taken the decision of not disclosing the report of Central Food Laboratory Kolkata about a leading milk brand being sub-standard, unsafe and misbranded? It has happened. One can imagine how producers of food products can play with the lives of millions of people for selfish interests and aggrandizement. The Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK), responding to their moral duty and conscience, have come out with a stern warning that if the Government fails to exert control on production of spurious food articles and delays taking administrative action against the defaulters, it will be obliged to go in for Public Interest Litigation on this count. As custodians of public health, it is but natural that conscientious doctors cannot let innocent people become victims of various kinds of diseases, some of these very fatal, afflict the people in the valley. The entire community appreciates the stand taken by the doctors.
It is sad and unfortunate that the two food producing companies whose product samples were lifted and sent to the Central Food Laboratory for test, have begun to exert pressure on the authorities to hush up the matter just because their companies are involved in the scandal and that they are wielding political clout. The Deputy Drug and Food Control Office in Srinagar had virtually suppressed the report of the Central Food Laboratory of Kolkata but was compelled to release parts of the report to the press when the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) issued a statement to the media about Fennel (saunf) powder manufactured by M/s Kanwal Agro Food Industries Anantnag containing colouring agents Carmoisine and Tartrazine. The Laboratory reported about the Khyber Milk states that besides containing detergent, the sample has failed to conform to various other standards stipulated under laws and regulations. The report has termed the sample as sub-standard, unsafe and misbranded. The samples do not conform to the standards laid down under various regulations of Food Safety including the rules governing Packing and Labeling. It is pertinent to note that Dr. Nisar-ul-Hasan, President of Doctors Association Kashmir reacting to the matter said that it was painful to know that over 50 samples had failed in tests in last two months by the analytic reports of food and drug testing laboratory Dalgate. It was also distressing to know that food items contained filth and foreign matter like sand and clay.
It will be reminded that some time back, a case of drugs adulteration and supply of spurious drugs was also unearthed in the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar. On inquiry, it was found that a racket of supplying spurious drugs had been at work for quite some time and suppliers were minting money. The same is the case about the food items that have also been categorized as adulterated and spurious. If the cronies involved in supplying spurious drugs were punished according to the law of the land perhaps that might have exerted salutary impact on producers of food items. Since nobody knows whether those culprits were punished or not, whether an inquiry was actually conducted or whether the matter was hushed up at the end of the day, we shall be face to face with more incidents of adulteration and supply of spurious food stuffs. The President of DAK has spelt out the dangers of people taking adulterated food. He has also hinted at sharp rise in diseases like cancer, cardiac problems, liver disorders, kidney failure, GI disturbances, paralysis and other neurological problems.
Now with these reports becoming public, and authorities reportedly succumbing to pressure from the defaulters who have strong political connections, the onus is on the doorsteps of the Government to come into picture and play its role. People expect the Government to take stern view of the case of food adulteration and forthwith lock and seal these factories. The Government has no right to play with the health of ordinary people. In such matters, if people see that the authorities fail to rise to occasion, they may, out of anger, take the law in their hands. That should never happen and no responsible Government can allow such a suicidal act. We strongly demand that the office of Drugs and Food Control forthwith become pro-active and conduct sample checking of food, milk, milk products and all such items and ensure that there is no adulteration and no spurious food items are sold in Jammu.
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