With the festive season around the corner, People's Forum for Transparency and Social Concern, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has directed health officials in Punjab to conduct regular raids at prominent sweet shops to check adulteration.
Unable to fathom why the health officials in the state fear collecting samples from well-known establishments, M S Gill, the NGO's president and a long-standing crusader against adulteration, asked why mobile vans are not deployed in each district of Punjab to test food items.
He added that it seems that the health officials did not do their work honestly, merely conducted checks and raids at small shops and punished them, but were lenient towards the prominent shops, perhaps because they have some interest in them.
“People from our NGO, as well as the common man, have complained to the health officials on numerous occasions about the involvement of prominent shops in adulteration,” Gill said.
“The officials visited prominent shops in Model Town and Sarabha Nagar markets and destroyed unhealty sweets, but did not collect samples,” he added.
“While collecting the data, I found that the health officials collected 31 samples of sweets this year. Of them, five failed the test. However, the health officials from Ludhiana did not collect any samples from big sweet shops in the city,” Gill informed.
When quizzed, Ludhiana's district health officer, on the condition of anonymity, said, “We had destroyed sweets at prominent shops in Model Town and other places, and found that the sweets was unfit for the consumption. But since the complainants who compromise, we don't collect the samples.”
Senior officials from Punjab's ministry of health and family welfare said that officials do not take action on the prominent sweet shops owing to corruption and political pressure.
Unable to fathom why the health officials in the state fear collecting samples from well-known establishments, M S Gill, the NGO's president and a long-standing crusader against adulteration, asked why mobile vans are not deployed in each district of Punjab to test food items.
He added that it seems that the health officials did not do their work honestly, merely conducted checks and raids at small shops and punished them, but were lenient towards the prominent shops, perhaps because they have some interest in them.
“People from our NGO, as well as the common man, have complained to the health officials on numerous occasions about the involvement of prominent shops in adulteration,” Gill said.
“The officials visited prominent shops in Model Town and Sarabha Nagar markets and destroyed unhealty sweets, but did not collect samples,” he added.
“While collecting the data, I found that the health officials collected 31 samples of sweets this year. Of them, five failed the test. However, the health officials from Ludhiana did not collect any samples from big sweet shops in the city,” Gill informed.
When quizzed, Ludhiana's district health officer, on the condition of anonymity, said, “We had destroyed sweets at prominent shops in Model Town and other places, and found that the sweets was unfit for the consumption. But since the complainants who compromise, we don't collect the samples.”
Senior officials from Punjab's ministry of health and family welfare said that officials do not take action on the prominent sweet shops owing to corruption and political pressure.
