High Court notice to Haryana Health Department on spurious milk
Faridabad, December 7
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued a notice to the state Health Department regarding a petition filed by a local, alleging rampant manufacture and supply of spurious milk products from Palwal and Nuh districts. The court has fixed May 4, 2023, as the next date of hearing in this regard.
In the PIL, petitioner Varun Sheokand claimed that around 40,000 kg of spurious milk products such as paneer and khoya were supplied to various districts, including Palwal, Faridabad, Gurugram, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Rewari and Narnaul, along with Delhi and other parts of the NCR daily.
The petition claimed that unethical practices connected with the manufacturing, storing and sale of fake, misbranded, adulterated and substandard food items, especially milk and its derivatives, was going on unchecked hence, posing a risk to the health of residents.
“Despite repeated judgments by the apex court and the HC, persons or units engaged in such unethical activities have shown scant regard for the regulatory mechanism envisaged into the Food Safety Act, and similar laws have received encouragement and support from the state apparatus through inadequate action,” it added. The petition further claimed that while such activities had done irreparable harm to health, it was high time that the executive and political apparatus take a serious view of the menace.
