Milk adulteration on the rise

Taking advantage of the lax attitude of the government and lenient laws, milkmen in the state have been indulging in adulteration for ages.

Adopting a soft stance, the Punjab Government has once again extended the date for the milkmen in the state to get themselves registered and make licence, which seems to have been causing hurdles for the health department to take strict action against those who have been indulging in this practice.

It is mandatory for the milkmen to get themselves registered and make a licence. They were supposed to get themselves registered before August 4. However, the Punjab Government has once again extended the registration deadline to February 4.

There are around 3,000 milkmen in the city, and hardly 10 per cent of them have got themselves registered.

Dr Jasbir Singh from the District Health Office said, “We regularly take samples to check the standard of the milk consumed by the residents of Jalandhar. Most of the time, milk is found far less than the standard prescribed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Since the government has once again extended the deadline for the milkmen to get licence, we cannot restrict them from selling milk.”

“A majority of the samples are found to be added with water, yet no case of synthetic milk has come up in the city,” he added.

The Dairy Department Jalandhar is equipped with two milk analyser machines apart from the adulteration kit. Despite the fact that they take samples from time to time, it doesn’t come under their jurisdiction to initiate action against those who indulge in milk adulteration.

Deputy Director, Dairy Department, Jalandhar, Balwinderjit Singh, however, said that they procure samples to educate people whether the milk consumed by them is healthy enough.

“We recently collected samples from various localities in the city. Most of the samples were substandard. We forwarded the case to the district health authorities for further action, as it doesn’t come under our jurisdiction to take action,” he added.

Speaking on same issue, the DHO said they could not take action based on the findings of the dairy department. They are to collect their own samples, which are sent to a laboratory in Chandigarh.