Possibility of adulterated milk and other food items, especially sweets, being supplied to Uttarakhand from western Uttar Pradesh during Diwali has put police and food safety officials on their toes.
Dehradun SSP Sadanand Date said that as per statistics adulterated food items are supplied to Dehradun from some parts of UP during the time of Diwali. “We are thus on our guard to stop such malpractice. District police officers have been put on alert. The policemen deputed at check posts have been asked to be alert too. Moreover police station officers would launch vehicle checking drives in their jurisdiction. Vehicles carrying food items should be thoroughly checked at the check points,” he added.
Mention worthy, Clement Town police during such a drive at Asharodi had found five quintals of adulterated petha sweets on November 7 followed by four quintals of adulterated sweets being seized at the same check post the following day. In both the cases, police had asked the district food safety officials to collect samples of the food items and complete necessary formalities as per the law. In course of interrogation, the accused said they had brought them to Dehradun from Chhutmalpur in Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar.
Dehradun food safety officer Anoj Kumar Thapliyal said that teams-each consisting of four officials- are alert. They had raided around 60 different shops and manufacturing units of sweets and collected samples of food items, he said, adding that some were found wanting after being tested preliminarily. “They were sent to Food and Drug Testing laboratory (FDTl) based in Rudrapur to have their purity thoroughly checked,” he said.
He further said that despite the department facing acute staff crunch with the start of festive season from October, team members have been deployed at Harbertpur, Vikasnagar, Rishikesh, Rispana bridge, Kolagarh and some other places of Dehradun city aside from Ajabpur Khurd, Rajpur, Sahaspur and others located along Chakrata Road.
During the raids, they are monitoring the preparation techniques and also keeping a tab over hygiene and precautions being maintained by the manufacturers while preparing the sweets. Such drive would continue in the district in the coming days, he added.