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Ready to hang if proved wrong: Rajendra Balaji

Making a startling revelation, he said the adulterators were mixing formaldehyde as preservative in their milk.

Chennai: Continuing his barrage of adulteration charges against private dairies, state dairy minister Rajendra Balaji on Saturday declared he would hang himself if they proved him wrong. “Barring very few, all the private dairies in the state are mixing chemicals in their milk to extend shelf life. We have tested samples and found them out. Action will soon follow”, the minister told reporters at hometown Sivakasi.

Lashing out at critics who accused him of causing the ‘chemical scare’ in order to squeeze the private dairies for money, the minister said, “Milk is a critically important food for all, especially babies. It is my duty as the dairy minister to warn the people of this evil, this danger”.

Making a startling revelation, he said the adulterators were mixing formaldehyde as preservative in their milk. The minister said the presence of formaldehyde in the milk of private dairies had been confirmed in tests done in the government labs at Madhavaram and Guindy, while the test results from a Central lab in Mysuru were expected in about 25 days. “After that we will take stern action”, he said.

While the minister said formaldehyde was being used in medical colleges to preserve ‘porutkal’ (things), the truth is that the chemical is used for preserving body parts and for injecting in dead bodies to preserve them. In 2011, the US National Toxicology Program had described formaldehyde as “known to be a human carcinogen”.

Rubbishing the charge from the opposition parties and other critics that he had raised the 'chemical' storm only to extract money from the private dairies, minister Balaji thundered, "I have not taken a paisa from anyone. If I accept money from these adulterators, that would amount to eating human faeces". The minister was making wild charges and triggering panic, said PMK leader Dr S. Ramadoss, arguing that even the government Aavin milk contained chemical preservatives as otherwise it would be spoilt by the time it travels from the cow to the consuming households. This was countered by the minister saying that Aavin resorted to chilling the milk as the safe process to preserve it for a reasonable short time--unlike the fancy-dangerous claims being peddled by the private dairies that their milk has even 10-day shelf life.

Reflecting the anguish of the private dairy industry, one of its senior procurement agents Ponnusamy said, "The minister's shocking allegation has hurt us. He should not have made such a sweeping scary charge. Instead, he should have done proper investigations and taking firm action against delinquent dairies. Why hurt the entire industry?"

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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