The court was surprised to know that only one mobile van was deputed in Mumbai. It said, "For a city like Mumbai, where the population is over a crore, how can you have only one van? The number has to be increased."
Asking if four mobile milk testing vans were sufficient for the entire state of Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to procure more such vans to curb the rising problem of milk adulteration.
A division bench of justices Naresh Patil and A Sayed said, "This is very disturbing. The government will have to come up with a policy to increase the number of mobile vans, which will have to be fitted with GPS system to help track their whereabouts at the earliest."
The court was surprised to know that only one mobile van was deputed in Mumbai. It said, "For a city like Mumbai, where the population is over a crore, how can you have only one van? The number has to be increased."
The direction was given during the hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by retired Colonel Chandra Shekhar Unni, through his advocate Gunratan Sadavarte. He claimed that the authorities were not acting as per law and milk drinkers, especially the children, were at a major risk.
The petition relied on a survey conducted by NGO Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, which claimed that of the 33,000 surveyed families, around 46 per cent received below-standard milk. The petition prayed that the authorities exercised the Legal Metrology Act of 2009, and took action against the errant suppliers.
Meanwhile, the court also directed the food and drug administration (FDA) to inform about the steps taken by the government to curb adulteration of other edible products such as oil/ghee and fruits. The FDA filed an affidavit enumerating the steps it has taken to curb milk adulteration. Among the many steps is a helpline number to receive complaints about adulteration and, on a pilot basis, deployment of mobile testing vans.
It further stated that during 2014-15, it collected 1,827 samples of different classes of milk, of which 381 were detected to be adulterated. The authority then launched prosecution in 47 cases and collected a fine of Rs14.57 lakh from the offenders.
Stating that fruit adulteration was prevalent everywhere, the court asked the government to inform on the next date of hearing the steps taken to prevent it. The hearing has now been adjourned by two weeks.
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