Malik M Aslam Awan
TWO decades ago people were clamouring that the milk is diluted and adulterated by the milk shop owners and those connected with the business of milk but now they think that the situation then was endurable and to some extent comfortable, mere water adding in the milk. Now the phenomena is quite reverse and there are so many factories indulged in the preparation of chemical milk, which is too pernicious and fatal to the general health. Water processing with the exception of a few brands is too worst.
Punjab Food Authority has been constituted by the previous Chief Minister, assigned with the task to ensure the pure nutrition to the common man but despite allocation of huge budget and luxurious vehicles at its disposal, it has remained a failure to stall the chemical milk, in the metropolitan in particular and the other cities in general. Tankers full of chemical milk daily rushing unhampered towards the metropolitan and the food authority is mere a helpless spectator of the heinous crime. I, having an agriculture background, can easily distinguish between pure and chemical milk without using any apparatus, but why the Food Authority staff equipped with latest apparatuses and luxurious vehicles, failing to do their jobs. Lacking sincerity to perform one’s duty make them a failure. Is Food Authority failing to perform or don’t want to stall the most obnoxious practice, which is horrendous in its operation to sap the very vitals of general healthcare.
We are already living in precarious situation, where eatables can’t be had on in pure form. We eat vegetables having the dirty, polluted water of sewerage in its veins to shatter the public health. We use soap made of the fat of died animals. We drink water of water supply, contaminated with pollution of damaged pipes of water supply with sewerage water. We eat low standard fruit. We use grinded chilly mixed with the powder of lumber. Our children eat ice-creams made of baking powder and chemicals. We have tea at tea stalls a common and frequent practice of our society- made of chemical milk, making a large segment of society prey to the fatal diseases.
Our hospitals are full of patients; a large majority of them got sickened due to inferior quality of edibles. In the days of scorching heat, the palpitating hearts require cold drinks to sooth ones inner thirst and quench inborn heat but we feel saddened to say that the milk shakes are adulterated with chemical milk. Pity to the Food Authority, the rampant crime of chemical milk’s is going on unfettered. If the Food Authority had not the audacity or valour to stall the heinous crime of chemical milk then its existence is unwarranted. The incumbent Chief Minister should be conscious of the shattering effect of chemical eatables on the health of masses. Chemical milk had been developed into an organized mafia, hell-bent to destroy public health and this mafia is more dangerous and powerful than even the drug mafia of Pakistan.
It is the responsibility of the incumbent government to devise drastic measures to root out the chemical milk mafia and ensure pure food items to the public. There should not be a compromise on public health and the mafia playing havoc with public health be dealt with an iron hand. NGOs and individuals must come to the fore to pinpoint the food adulterators and dealers of chemical milk to their complete elimination from the very fabric of society. To ensure the safety of public health is the first and foremost duty of any government.
Pure edibles, pure water, pure milk are basic necessities of life and those playing havoc with the general masses’ health are a great risk to an amenable and peaceful society. Health facilities are always at the top priority agenda of every civilized nation and government. Healthy nations contribute a lot to the mankind while sickened nations are a burden on the Planet. It is an admitted fact that the “White Poison” dealers cannot carry their business without being in criminal league with food authority officials. Both the segments, the ill elements of Food Authority and “white poison” dealers are required to be dealt with iron hand, to save the humanity from their malicious deeds. Both the intriguing partners be made severely answerable to law of the land, to face strenuous punishments, to ensure public health free of the disastrous nuisance of the “white poison” mafia.
—The writer is a freelance columnist and independent analyst based in Lahore.
