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.

Will remove Khyber hoardings soon: SMC

Srinagar: Even after government invoked a ban on Khyber Dairy products, the company’s hoardings about the banned toned milk and curd on roadsides and footpaths are still intact while people are alleging that Srinagar Municipal Corporation seems in no mood to entertain the order.
“It is irony that government took three days in removing the Khyber Dairy products even after the strict directions from the Court. Now it is responsibility of SMC to remove the hoardings of Khyber Company that are found in every nook and corner of Srinagar city,” said a Srinagar resident.
Pertinently, Judicial Magistrate (Sub-Judge) Budgam, Imtiaz Ahmad Lone, had directed the Commissioner Food and Safety to close down the company or ensure that its products are taken off the market till the outcome of results of the samples to be taken from the market.
In his judgment, Lone had said: “The Commissioner Food and Safety shall immediately take all steps in ensuring that the convicted company is closed or products are taken off from the market unless Referral Laboratory Kolkata declares that the products of the convicted company as safe to consume and products manufactured by the convicted company do not harm the nation as is proved by the medical report submitted by the SKIMS.”
Reports said that Khyber Company had installed hoardings of banned Dairy products in different parts of Srinagar city. “It gives a wrong signal. The SMC should remove these hoardings without any delay,” said a passerby after looking at the company’s hoarding near Regal Chowk.
Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation Bashir Ahmed Khan said that the Corporation is bound to remove these misleading hoardings. “I am out of station and once I will reach Srinagar, all these hoardings will be removed,” he said.

Why Focus on Khyber?

Khyber is the largest milk supplier in the Kashmir valley

Kashmir Observer has been criticized by certain quarters for highlighting misdemeanours of Khyber Agro Farm Ltd. In the main, it has been alleged, washing the dirty linen of a native or local company that has over time morphed into a brand is wrong. Moreover, it has been alleged that drubbing Khyber amounts to creating space for outside brands and firms. There are faint echoes of nativism and pride involved here. But both are misplaced.
Khyber over time has indeed evolved into a diversified quasi conglomerate. This is heartening. But what is alarming and worrisome is that the ‘local’, native company was involved in egregious malpractice that hurt or more potentially hurt consumers- if the Government version is to be believed. Khyber’s motive in taking recourse to malpractice stretches reason and credulity. If the firm wanted to increase economies of scale, and thus market share, there were legitimate and perfectly legal and ethical means to do so. Moreover, the firm- even though we have not had a look at its accounts- appeared to be growing –in terms of market share, market power and its concentration ratio suggests there are little competition to it. The firm could have grown by way of organic growth- increased output, sales, new product development and improved time to market and, of course, diversification. These strategic management options are still open to the firm. It needs to be stated here that Khyber is not dead; it is alive and there is a future for the firm.
Our premise for highlighting the misconduct was in the nature of taking the information into the public domain in public interest. Our approach was not slanted. That is, we were not singling out Khyber. A wrong has been done; obfuscating or blacking it out amounts to impropriety and downright immoral and unethical behavior. This, however, is not the only reason. Being part of the local media-scape and its conscientious members, we did not want to leave the ‘pickings ripe’ for outsiders, so to speak.
Does this mean we are hostile towards business activity? No. Not at all. We are very much mindful of the need for business, commercial and entrepreneurial activity to both take root and expand in Kashmir. But we also understand and vigorously believe that while commerce and economic activity is great, it cannot and should not come at the expense of the people. We, by highlighting Khyber’s misconduct, also wanted our businesses and firms to be more ethical and stakeholder friendly. This may sound counter intuitive given that we highlighted Khyber’s misconduct but the point here is that, in the final analysis, ethical and sound business practices, matter and are key to sustainable wealth creation.
Corporations, across the world, are realizing and moving beyond mere shareholder value to sound, healthy, prudent and ethical business practices. Good ethics, crudely put, are good business too. This is also one reason why we chose to bring Khyber’s misconduct in the public domain. We want our businesses to understand and internalize the value of business ethics and good corporate conduct. We will not for the sake of vanity and misplaced pride disavow or choose to ignore or gloss over misconduct. In the interests of propriety, ethics, larger public interest and good, and in order to spur our business firms, enterprises and entrepreneurs to prudent and ethical business practices, we will not hesitate in doing what is right.

Khyber Milk Discredited, What About Other Brands?

 

What about other milk brands?

Srinagar: Khyber Agro Farms Pvt Ltd, largest dairy producer in the state, has been stripped naked and the secret to its so called ‘safaedi’ revealed. While people are busy discussing Khyber, it is time other local and non-local brands selling milk and other dairy products in Kashmir markets are also put under scanner.
“Our team has collected 20 samples of different brands of dairy products in Srinagar and Pulwama district which will be tested within a period of 14 days and the report will be made public. The testing of samples will be done in the whole state and we will accordingly report to the concerned agencies,” Deputy Commissioner Food and Drug Control Ms. Irfana told Kashmir Observer.
Numerous brands like Snow Cap, Zum Zum, Haleeb, V-fresh, Pure’de, Surya milk, Dodla milk, Milan dairy are sold in Kashmir markets.
Following reports of adulteration by a renowned and ‘trustworthy’ brand like Khyber became public, suspicions about the quality of other lesser known brands have risen. This is an open secret that companies falling under Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) category are suspect in Kashmir for selling adulterated and substandard food items, yet their produce is sold as there are very few choices (Especially dairy and spices) available in the market for the consumer.
They have been feeding poison to the people of the valley for a long time now with the so called guardians of public health hand in glove with them.
Dairy business was monopoly of the state till recently. In the late sixties, the government of Jammu and Kashmir directed Animal Husbandry Department to establish a dairy farm in both Jammu and Kashmir. In this connection, exotic cattle farms were established in both the regions. First milk plant in the state, named as Milk Supply Scheme, was constructed in 1959. In 1970, another milk plant came into existence in Jammu. Both were under the control of Animal Husbandry department of the state. In 1970’s, a proposal for the launch of Operation Flood in the state was submitted to the National Dairy Development Board through Indian Dairy Corporation. In 1983, cabinet took the decision to convert the Milk Supply Scheme to Kashmir Valley Milk Producer’s Cooperative Federation and Jammu Milk Cooperative Federation. Both these federations were unable to sustain the regular operations of procurement and processing and as such were liquidated in 2004.
As private dairy farms established their presence in the state, the milk production increased considerably in a span of 10-15 years. New Brands like Snow Cap and Zum Zum dairy productions began competing with Khyber agro farms and slowly milk production in Kashmir became a full-fledged industry. Over the years, the governing agencies stopped testing the samples of these dairy companies partly because of laziness but mostly because of the bribes these companies paid the officials. Since the issue has come to limelight now, the authorities have started a blame game in order to prove themselves as worthy public servants.
“Every product should be tested as we don’t trust any of these so called pure brands of Kashmir. Khyber is not only used in all our households but also during marriages and other functions. Authorities are acting as mute spectators. Despite this grave issue, they have not removed Khyber products from the market,” said Anees Mushtaq, a consumer.
Even after a week of the shocking revelations, the unsafe milk still continues to be sold in the valley markets openly. As per the local grocers, nearly 50-60 packets of Khyber milk and around 20-30 containers of Khyber Dahi are sold per day. “We have a lot of stock left as this brand of milk is very popular in Kashmir”, said Gulzar Ahmad a shop owner in Soura.
Health Officer SMC, Dr. Shamima said, “We have warned the shopkeepers to clear out any stock of the said product as some people are unaware about the issue. We have checked various markets today and have strictly warned grocers to stop selling the adulterated milk. We have issued warning on selling other brands as well till these are tested and verified by the Food and Drug Control officers.”

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Unhygienically packed Haldiram products flooding market in Jorhat, consumers asked to be alert

JORHAT, April 7: Taking advantage of the vacuum of many government department offices wherein officers have been deputed on election duty owing to the State assembly elections and also the approaching Bihu celebration, food based companies are pumping the markets of Northeast with adulterated and expired packaged food products and one such emerging company is Haldiram which has of late resorted to selling unhygienic food products in complete violation of FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) packaged licensing.

One such incident of recovery of both fresh and damp product inside Haldiram’s Orange flavoured Soan Papdi has created sensation in Jorhat on Thursday with a case being registered by the designated officer of the Jorhat Food Safety department under the Joint Director of Health office.

Victim Aanjum Hazarika while talking to The Sentinel said, “I purchased a packet of 200 gm Haldiram Orange flavoured Soan Papdi priced at Rs 50 from a local grocery shop after dropping my son to school and served three pieces of it with the morning tea. It was when my husband was appreciating the quality of the product and wanted to see the packet did I notice saw that it contained two different layers of the product within the same packet, one of which was wrapped in plastic with a spoon, which was fresh, and the other beneath the plastic wrap was completely damp, moist and gave out a pungent smell. My husband immediately brought the matter to the notice of the selling outlet and he gave us the address of the agency dealing with supplying and distributing the product on behalf of Haldiram that is M/s Salasar Enterprise having office at Baruanibaat, Jorhat.”

“However, despite showing the product to the owner identified as Lalit Sharma of Salasar Enterprise, he refused to accept that he sold the product and informed that there are other agencies besides his, like Punit Plastics, B.K Agency and Priyam Enterprise that sell the product. But he cooperated and got us connected with one Babul, a senior sales manager of Haldiram and one Pintu, salesman but they too refused to any kind of product violation. My husband decided to lodge a complaint with the food safety officer who immediately after seeing the FSSAI license raised doubts over the number that started with 13 zeroes and ended with the numeric 2. Incidentally, the food safety officer acting promptly seized the packet and raided the agencies and confiscated all purchased and selling slips to ascertain the origin of the product from where it was sent for distribution,” added Aanjum Hazarika.

Designated Food Safety Officer, HC Kalita said, “We have already started our investigation based on a written complaint and have seized the Haldiram product and will send the same to our state laboratory for test. Close examination shows the product to be adulterated and presence of different layers within the same packet. Interestingly, though the packet weight content is 200 grams and even after consumption of three pieces the net weight remains above 200 grams. The complainant has not raised doubt over the wrapped product but is concerned about the unhealthy, damp and unhygienic content present at the bottom and without any wrap. We doubt the FSSAI License number and need clarification as to from which State it has been issued. I appeal to the people to remain alert while purchasing such food products and report to us immediately at the slightest doubt. As such Assam has become a home to unscrupulous traders who deliberately adulterate food items and it is a serious crime.”

Silence on Khyber

Why Focus on Khyber?

A court on Monday fined Valley’s leading milk manufacturing brand Khyber Agro Farms Private Limited with Rs 9 lakh after the milk produced turned out to be laced with “detergent, urea and other dangerous chemicals not only in milk but other edible products.” The Judicial Magistrate sentenced company’s head of operations to six months imprisonment for violating various sections of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The court also blamed the company for the increased number of cancer patients in the Valley. The Food Analyst Hamidullah Dar was also criticised for not discharging his duties and his removal was ordered. This is the second time in the past three years that the brand’s milk has been found to be spurious. The court passed severe strictures against Dar. “Person like Mr. Hamidullah Dar is more dangerous than a fatal disease like cancer for the entire nation and [his] incapacity or compromise with the nature of the job like Food Analyst Kashmir cannot be accepted by any standards of expectations where lives of the citizens are involved,” the court said. Following this the State Government moved to ban Khyber milk and ordered recall of the brand’s milk and milk products from the market.

However, the government order is not without its irony. It once again took a court intervention to galvanize it into action – albeit its officials must have been long aware of the adulterated milk products being supplied to the market. But as court rightly observed, either due to dishonesty or because of the sheer incompetence, they let this slow poison be consumed by the people. 

But while court has done its bit and the government has grudgingly followed the directions, our civil society which cries loudest over political issues is silent. There is no statement from many active civil liberties groups, and so called champions of the food safety. There is also no statements from our clergy. Even no comment from the political parties across mainstream-separatist divide. National Conference is silent, PDP is silent and what is more, even Hurriyat is silent. Why? There is no rational explanation for this. Is our sense of outrage trained to respond to the political issues only? Because these offer instant attention. Doesn’t our collective health and that of our kids matter? Shouldn’t we demand with equal energy and the lung power a safe food for ourselves? More so, when we shell out hefty amount for it.

One would expect all our leaders, civil society activists and the clergy would be up in arms. Or, at least, issue their respective little statements to the press. Or Imams would at least inform the people at the mosques. But nothing of the sort has happened. This sense of indifference towards the environmental, food safety and health issues is appalling. And it is this general apathy which emboldened Khyber to put milk on the market despite government ban. It is this general apathy that the company hasn’t still cared to explain its side of story, not bothering to even issue a press release. This refusal to explain and defend itself is tantamount to admission of the guilt. Certainly we are a very, very politicized society but it is time we also care about our environment and of course our health too.