GUWAHATI, July 18 � The Milk Consumers Forum, Guwahati, which has welcomed the initiative of the dairy development department to train the milk traders of the capital city on clean and hygienic handling and distribution of milk has demanded of the authorities concerned for immediate implementation of the Milk Control Act.
The Forum however has also expressed its reservation on whether the citizens of Guwahati would actually get pure and hygienic milk as most of the government initiatives are more of din rather than implementation in true spirit.
The convenor of the Forum, Dr Lokendra Prasad Deka said that at first the concerned departments should take steps to augment the supply of milk which is very miserable compared to the demand of milk. �As of date, the demand for milk in the capital city is more than two lakh litre and the supply is hardly 50,000 litre per day. There is a huge deficit between demand and supply,� said Dr Deka noting that adulteration of milk would continue until the deficit is met.
It needs to be mentioned here that the Forum from time to time has been cautioning the consumers as well as the authorities concerned against the supply of adulterated milk. It has also been pressing for incentives to milk producers to increase the supply.
�But regrettably the authorities concerned keep mum over this issue of milk adulteration and those authorities who are responsible for checking and detecting adulterated milk are seen to evade their responsibilities,� alleged Dr Deka pointing out that had the provisions of The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 been implemented, the problem of milk adulteration would have been addressed to a great extent.
Insisting on random checking of milk to detect adulterants and punishment as per provisions of the law for the unscrupulous milk traders, Dr Deka said this practice should be religiously followed by the concerned department.
�Awareness is also very important to check adulteration of milk,� said Dr Deka calling for putting up hoardings at prominent places to aware the consumers on hygienic milk.
On the other hand, the Forum has called upon the Dairy Development department to make public its proposed monitoring mechanism over the trained milk traders for the benefit of the consumers.
