Wheels of administration are inordinately slow of motion. Last year, a sample of milk supplied by Khyber Agro Farm in the Valley was picked up for laboratory test at Kolkata. It was reported to be adulterated with detergent. Early this year again one more sample was picked up and again it was found contaminated and sub-standard. Between the two testing events, the supply of milk of this producing unit continued in the market and people consumed it. At long last, Srinagar Municipal Corporation has awoken from slumber and issued a show cause notice to Khyber Agro Farm why their unit should not be locked. Thus we find that almost after six months the authorities began to act that too half heartedly. Though the show cause notice bars the company from production and distribution of its milk, yet what has it to say to the people who consumed it and obviously must have got health problems? The way in which serious criminal acts are soft pedalled will not be called good administration. Milk is a very essential item for consumers of all ages especially children. Who knows what kind of health problem and on what scale adulterated milk must have caused to the consumers? This is a case which somebody should take up under PIL and plead for full compensation to the consumers.
There is every possibility that besides milk other food items too will be adulterated by unscrupulous food production sources. The Government should energize the mechanism of testing all food products and ensuring that these are not adulterated. Surprise check by municipal authorities and random sampling are the ways how adulteration can be detected and finally stopped. We strongly recommend that exemplary punishment in accordance with the law should be given to the defaulters and that alone will deter others from committing crimes like these.
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