Panel asks Odisha to submit report on milk purity in 3 weeks

Bhubaneswar, Jan 13 (PTI) Taking suo moto cognisance from media reports, the Odisha State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) today sought a status report within three weeks from the state government on the purity of milk supplied by it. "The SHRC has sought a status report from the state's fisheries and animal resource development department which supplies packet milk to people though Odisha Milk Federation (Omfed)," said panel registrar C R Mohapatra. The human rights panel's report came two days after the fisheries and animal resource development (FARD) department seeking information from the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on the source of milk collected by it from the state. FSSAI, in its report, had mentioned that 100 per cent of the milk distributed in the state was adulterated. FARD today refused to accept at least 1,000 litre of milk from farmers after testing quality of the milk being supplied by them, official sources said. The state government's public health department, meanwhile, collected milk samples from different places of the state and will put them for laboratory test. "We are testing colour, water percentage, salt, sugar and fat content in the milk," said public health analyst N R Das.