Chennai: Observing that milk adulteration is a serious issue and the food safety is more important, the Madras high court has directed the Director of Public Health to be present in the court on December 12 and file a comprehensive report relating to the alleged sale of adulterated milk in Tamil Nadu.
A division bench comprising Justices Vineet Kothari and Anita Sumant gave the directive on a public interest litigation filed by advocate A.P.Suryaprakasam which sought a CBI probe into the allegation of milk being sold in Tamil Nadu is
adulterated and if found true, prosecute the adulterated milk producing companies.
Following the statement of the state dairy development minister in 2017 alleging that the private milk firms were using harmful chemicals in the milk they produce which causes cancer, there were claims and counter claims between the state
government and the private milk companies. Pursuant to this, advocate Suryaprakasam filed the present PIL in June 2017.
When the PIL came up for hearing on Thursday, Suryaprakasam submitted that in the status report filed by the state government earlier it has been stated that milk samples lifted from 32 districts, 886 samples lifted and analyzed. Out of which, no samples were found unsafe and 187 samples were found substandard and misbranded. This statement was contradictory to each other, he pointed out.
When the bench asked what was the position as on today, what action has been taken, how many survey has been taken and how many tests were carried out, Government Pleader (in-charge) Jayaprakash Narayanan said he would collect all the details and file it before the court.
Wondering as to what the government was doing in this matter for over one year, the bench said “This is a serious issue. Food safety is more important”.
The bench directed the Director of Public health to file a comprehensive report as to what action has been taken against the manufactures and sellers of adulterated milk, how many persons were prosecuted and convicted, how many surveys were conducted and what was the result of the test.
