Apr 8, 2016

Khyber Milk Not even Worth For Animals Use’

Company dares court order, floods market with 47,000 litres of milk and 2000 kgs of curd

‘Srinagar: A shocking revelation by a former civil servant about Khyber milk is enough to shake ground beneath your feet: Not even worth for Animals use.
This grave revelation about a widely used product has caused the people of the valley to lash out on various social media sites.
Mohammad Anees, a former civil servant in a response to a Facebook post reveals how he was told that Khyber milk wasn’t even fit for animals. “Late Mufti sahab wanted to involve Mr Kurrieen of Amul to start an Amul backed milk plant on cooperative lines in J&K,”Mr Anees said. “I was those days the Secretary Resident in Commission Office New Delhi and was given a task to liaise with Mr Anand and GM Amul. One of the formalities for this exercise was to send samples of locally available packed milk to Mr Anand. While proceeding ahead I, for curiosity sake, asked GM about the report of local milk brand, Khyber besides other small local brands. His remarks were stunning. "Not even worth for Animals use", he answered.
“It is shocking how milk, a necessity, is being replaced by detergent. In times when even the officers are allowing companies to sell us poison, who are we supposed to trust? Does our health and life mean so little?”Dr.Abid Hussain, a general physician lamented.
“God knows how many people might have died by consuming this milk,” another Facebook user reflected upon Mr. Anees’ revelations. “The Food Analyst Kashmir--Habillullah--has been in league with them. The court has termed the Food Analyst as 'cancer for the society'.”
Former Director Animal Husbandry, Farooq Ahmad Kaloo in his response said that he had forecast this thing to happen. “I was a part of the team tasked to inspect various milk plants in Kashmir. When I learned that they have been procuring milk from Punjab, I told the managers that they would one day land in trouble because there is absolutely no mechanism to prevent milk adulteration enroute. And it has now finally got detected by some honest fellow. Unfortunately milk and mutton inspection in the state has been assigned to non-professional people instead of it being assigned to vets who are better equipped and better trained to undertake the job.”
The concern over food adulteration is not something new to the valley. Earlier, food products like chicken kebabs and fish had come under the scanner and the administration had even banned certain unknown brands, declaring them unsafe for consumption.
Notwithstanding the Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) Wednesday demanding a complete ban on sale of Khyber milk, the company continued to openly violate the orders of the Honourable Judicial Magistrate Budgam, Mr Imtiaz Ahmad Lone, and supplied milk to the valley markets.
As per reports, around 47,000 litres of milk and 2000 kgs of curd were supplied by the company to the markets only a day after the Budgam court had ordered Commissioner Food and Safety, to either close the company or remove all the products manufactured by them till declared safe.
Khyber products had been involved in a similar controversy a few months back, however the company had denied any adulteration on their part.
As per a medical report submitted by the Sheri-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, the company’s milk was found to contain traces of detergent and was labelled as a threat to human health.
Terming contaminated milk as attack on human lives, President DAK Dr Nisarul Hassan in a statement said that the government should immediately stop manufacture and sale of Khyber dairy products and withdraw all stocks from the market till there is clarity on the quality of products.
“Khyber milk is consumed by hundreds of valley residents including small children. How can they play with our health? They should be punished severely so that no company will dare to do such a thing in future”, said SheemaAshai, a resident of AaliKadal.
The court has imposed a penalty of Rs 6 lakh on Khyber and sentenced its representatives to six months imprisonment.
“Having high regard for the judicial system, I really feel disappointed from the judgement, said Rafiq Ahmad Shah, a Jeddah based bank manager. “Though the learned judge seem to be convinced about the crime and have come up with serious remarks against the company and food analyst but is the fine imposed enough and Exemplary? Possibly not.”
The court has ordered the product samples to be collected and sent to Referral Laboratory, Kolkata for further testing. However the samples couldn’t be collected on Wednesday as the Station House Officer, Budgam was not available.
Commissioner Food and Safety, Mr Mandeep K Bhandari, on being quizzed about the issue assured that the court orders will be obeyed properly and said that the samples couldn’t be collected today as the court order was received late in the evening yesterday.
Meanwhile, the company continues to play with the health of the consumers by selling their unsafe products. Shockingly, the Food Analyst, Kashmir, Mr Hamidullah Dar had very recently given a clean chit to the company and declared its products safe for consumption.

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