By SUBHASH CHANDRA AGRAWAL
It refers to shocking incident of adulterated ghee having been used in holy prasad of laddoos in Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam during earlier regime. Firstly, rule should be that management of such renowned Hindu temples should only be in hands of persons belonging to the same religion, unanimously appointed by a committee also consisting of opposition leaders to eliminate doubts and allegations of such incidents having been done on behest of persons of other religions managing affairs of the Hindu temples directly or indirectly.
Everyone knows that pure desi ghee cannot be practically prepared at such low rate of just rupees 320 per kgs or ltrs considering prevailing cost of milk. Therefore, probe is necessary to find out the truth why increase in price by the earlier ‘Nandini’ ghee produced in reputed cooperative sector was refused, giving order to a private firm. Probe should also include how and why the private supply agreed to supply desi ghee at such low price quizzing the supplier to come out with cost-analysis which allowed him to supply desi ghee at such low price.
It is welcome that the management of a Lucknow Hindu temple has now taken over preparing prasad for offering in its own hands thus banning prasad purchased from private dealers outside the temple. It is noteworthy that reports indicate that shopkeepers selling pedas for prasads ran away after closing their shops when raid-teams arrived there to check purity of khoya used in preparing pedas. All reputed and affording Hindu temples should start making prasad for offering to deities only by themselves to ensure purity.
It is a common feature that pooja-ghee is sold at extremely low price like rupees 250 per kg. Evidently such packs of so-alleged desi ghee specially marked as pooja-ghee are to befool religious-minded persons who use such packs for religious rituals. Sale of such specially labelled pooja-ghee should be banned. Otherwise also, adulterated milk-products including like desi ghee, khoya, paneer etc and even including milk itself are extremely harmful for public-health apart from making religious minded vegetarian people consume animal-fats and other synthetic products.
Requirement of khoya especially in festive-seasons of Diwali in Delhi is so high that normal daily milk-supply can never fulfil the increased demand. Evidently only harmful spurious khoya can only practically fulfil gap between demand and supply. Situation should be tackled by allowing sale of milk and milk-products only through organised sector. There have been now so companies in selling packaged milk and milk-products like Mother dairy, Sara, Sudha, Amul, Verka Nandini under co-operative sector or under government-control apart from several other private players like Gopala (Anand) or Namaste India. All such units have sufficient mechanism to check adulteration in procured milk. If sale of milk and milk-products in urban areas is made compulsory only through wide-spread network of dealers, then more private players will enter the field to ensure unadulterated supply of milk and milk-products. Situation is same in case of milk and other milk-products like paneer. Production of unadulterated paneer in wholesale market at prevailing prices cannot even meet the normal production-cost. Organised sector can further reduce rates of khoya and paneer by reducing excessive fat-contents from these items, which can be further used in production of butter and ghee. All these products can compulsory have fssai-certification from Food Safety and Standards Association of India, a government-agency. However private players like Namaste India must not be allowed to cheat customers by having milk-packs in units like 950 mltrs or 1950 mltrs to look alike 1000 mltrs and 2000 mltrs respectively. All packs of milk and milk-products should be compulsorily packed in packs of true metric spirit of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 gms/mltrs and thereafter similar units of Kgms/litres only. Even ghee should be packed likewise either in ltrs or kgs abolishing normal pack of 15 kgs.
Co-operative milk-giant Amul which holds proud distinction of being ranked at 15th place in top 100 most valuable food brands in the world (only other Indian brand Britannia ranking at 54th place) deserves compliments for introducing Panchamrit, a holy mix of milk, curd, honey, powdered sugar and desi ghee which is used to offer to deities in Hindu temples to be later consumed as prasad by devotees. Amul had won over Mother Dairy to take over Delhi Milk Scheme (DMS) running in heavy losses at an annual lease of rupees 42.30 crore against rupees 42.20 offered by Mother Dairy for 30 years with 7-percent annual increase in lease-amount in the bid opened on 27.11.2018. DMS started in the year 1959 has already piled up losses to tune of rupees some thousand crores. If DMS is given to Amul on lease, more than 500 DMS booths scattered throughout delhi presently being grossly misused as private shops by the licensees in corrupt partnership of DMS-officers by authorisation to sell products other than from DMS will be best used by Amul in larger interest of people of Delhi. Mother Dairy booths in Delhi sell only Mother Dairy products, a big reason for success of Mother Dairy. Mere existence of DMS after launch of Mother Dairy in Delhi is in itself wastage of public-resources.
With too many complaints coming in mid-day meal programme in schools and railway-catering, Amul and Britannia can be entrusted to supply packaged food-items for mid-day meal programme and railway catering. Central and state governments are already providing huge comforts to certain newly emerging companies by allotting land and tax-concessions. These should be provided at least to cooperative giant Amul if not to private sector Britannia. Such encouragement will not only be in public interest, but will also induce healthy competition amongst other Indian companies to find place in top 100 most valuable food-brands in the world. Top management of public-sector companies like Mother Dairy and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) should be pulled up for being so behind Amul and Britannia despite heavy public-money invested in these public-sector companies.
All confectioners and eateries claiming of using desi ghee in their products should be directed to place bigger-sized photos of pack-labels of desi ghee used by them depicting clearly brand-name and other information of the manufacturer of desi ghee on their sign-boards and other prominent places. This information should be mandatorily shared by them with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
It is quite common that harmful oils and animal-facts are widely being used specially at road-side dhabas and economical eateries and restaurants in name of butter. Central and state governments should take some steps whereby such spurious ‘butter’ may not be possible to be used.
Taking cognisance of alleged incidents of spitting and mixing of urine in eatables in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has rightly directed that the name and address of operators, proprietors and managers should be mandatorily displayed at all food centres making it compulsory for chefs and waiters to wear masks and gloves, besides making installation of CCTV cameras in hotels and restaurants mandatory. Even minister Vikramaditya Singh in Congress-led Himachal Pradesh government desired to follow the same pattern. With so many Rohangias and Bangladeshis present in India, such steps should be mandatorily taken by all states keeping aside pseudo-secular politics.
