After Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain ordered his department to inspect milk products on a daily basis and submit reports as MLAs raised the issue of adulteration in the Delhi Assembly, the department of food safety has begun a special drive to lift milk samples from the diaries across the capital.
According to the sources, the drive will continue for two weeks till April 28.
"We have begun collecting milk samples from April 13. Each team will collect at least three samples of milk per day. The samples will then be sent to the laboratory for the quality test," said a senior Delhi government official.
Recently, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Rajesh Rishi from Janakpuri claimed that synthetic milk is being supplied in the city, which is allegedly "damaging kidneys and liver" of people. Other AAP MLAs also raised the issue, seeking strict action against those involved in food adulteration.
Speaker Ram Niwas Goel also formed a seven-member committee to suggest the amendments in the existing laws to ensure stern action against the culprits.
MLAs Mandan Lal, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Nitin Tyagi, Alka Lamba, Anil Vaipayee, Adarsh Shastri and SK Bagga have been appointed as members of the committee.
Goel said that the government will incorporate suggestions to be made by the committee, which will work in coordination with the House panel on health. The health minister said that the government will table a draft Bill in the House and send the same to the Centre for its nod.
In a decent data shared by the ministry of health and family welfare, only eight samples of milk from Delhi were analysed in the last three years and out of these- one was found to be adulterated, but no penalties were imposed. In the absence of stringent laws, the data reveals that every third sample in the country is adulterated.
While 6,649 and 7,635 samples of milk were analysed in the years 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively, no samples were collected or analyzed from Delhi. Eight samples were collected in 2016-17 from the state.
