Taking serious note of the recent seizure of spurious milk and dairy products from a Patiala factory, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday directed the concerned officers to explore ways of amending the law on food adulteration to make it more stringent.
The directive came during the Cabinet meeting, which took serious note of seizure of adulterated food in Patiala and other places, and mooted stringent punishment for such offences. Noting that the subject of food adulteration was covered by a central legislation, the Chief Minister asked the officers to work out the best possible ways to deal more strictly with such cases.
“The state should find its own ways of ensuring stricter punishment for those playing with the lives of people, especially children, through adulteration of milk, milk products and other food items,” said the Chief Minister during the informal discussion on the issue.
During the discussion by the Ministers, it was pointed out that even preservatives used for storage of fish were poisonous and dangerous for human consumption in the long run. The cabinet Minister unanimously underlined the need for strong measures to check such offences.
Capt Amarinder’s orders came on a day when the Mohali police has seized around 20 quintals of spurious cheese from a factory at Ballo Majra village of the district.
Mohali district health authorities sealed the factory after seizing the spurious cheese, 125 bags of sub-standard skimmed milk and adulterated butter.