Fake paneer, ghee sends shockwaves

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 18

Paneer on sale at prominent sweets shops in Patiala — the hometown of Punjab’s Chief Minister and Health Minister — and being sourced to other parts of Punjab and Haryana may well be refined oil mixed with detergent, urea and processed with acid, police investigations have revealed.  

  The same may also be true of ghee in branded packages, which in some cases has been found to be processed refined oil mixed with chemicals.

After conducting raids and grilling an owner of a “fakeproducts” factory, police officials claimed that the Health Department staff were “hand in glove” to ensure that such samples got the green signal from the government food-testing laboratory at Kharar. 

The officials allegedly got a “bribe of Rs 5,000 per month per dealer and Rs 10,000 to ensure a safe certificate” for the samples collected. 

On Thursday, SSP Mandeep Singh Sidhu sealed a dairy product factory after recovering refined oil, soda, acid and detergent powder. The owner, Anil Kumar Singla, was arrested and the police seized 7,000 litres of spurious milk, 323 bags of skimmed powered milk, 250 litres of chemicals used in making adulterated milk, 20 quintals of paneer and 12 quintals of ghee. No milk was procured, yet milk products were being sold by the factory owner. 

“Nearly 45 quintals of adulterated paneer and tonnes of milk were supplied from the factory daily. The owner would sell paneer at a relatively cheaper rate,” an official said. The police also found a borewell in which the owner would dispose of  waste products.

Singla confessed “supplying paneer to certain dairy owners at Rs 120 per kg, which would then be sold by middlemen to sweets and bakery shops in Punjab and Haryana.”

SSP Sidhu told The Tribune that the nexus was well-knit and all such factory owners would be in touch with middleman dairy owner Sukhwinder Singh. Farmer unions in the state are already protesting that they are suffering losses as unscrupulous elements are supplying cheap milk products. 

“Health Department officials found guilty must be dismissed from service,” demanded Consortium of Indian Farmers Association chief Satnam S Behru.

Mission Director, Tandarust Punjab, Kahan Singh Pannu confirmed he had received several complaints about the functioning of the Kharar food-testing lab. He said he had written to the authorities for action.