Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Apr 6: Expressing grave concern over rampant adulterated milk in Kashmir, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) today demanded strict enforcement of ban on sale of Khyber milk.
Terming contaminated milk as attack on human lives, the DAK president, Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan, said 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.
A court on Monday held Khyber Agro Pvt Ltd guilty of selling unsafe milk and asked Commissioner of Food Safety to shut the company operations and to take its products off the market.
Despite court directions, adulterated milk is being sold boldly and openly in the market in connivance with those employed to check and seize it, thus playing with the health and lives of people. While the food analyst of Kashmir in its report in 2013 had declared the milk product safe for consumption, the sample was found unsafe by a Kolkata lab.
“Virtually every cup of tea grownups have been taking for years and every ounce of milk infants have been brought up on was actually a deadly cocktail of detergents and hazardous substances,” the DAK president said.
He said the majority of people in our Valley are dependent on milk for their nutritional needs but get ‘white poison’ instead. “A national survey on milk adulteration in 2011 (snap short survey) by FSSAI revealed that 83% of milk consumed in Kashmir contains dangerous detergents and other hazardous substances,” the DAK president.
He said that the adulterated milk can cause gastroenteritis, heart, kidney, liver and lung diseases and drinking of such milk for prolonged period can cause cancers and even death.
“Infants have abnormal growth and nervous disorders due to ingestion of adulterated food and pregnant women can lose their fetuses due to toxic adulterants. It is obligatory on state to protect human lives and ensure supply of safe milk to citizens,” said the DAK president.
There is dire need to enact stringent laws to curb food adulteration as the current maximum punishment of six months is grossly inadequate, he added.
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