JOIN USThe Centre has set up a high-powered committee to suggest amendments to food safety law in order to make punishment for milk adulteration harsher.
The panel will also suggest amendments to laws to check proliferation of adulterated milk in states, including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
In an affidavit, the Health and Family Welfare Ministry told the Supreme Court that the committee, which held its first meeting on January 9, had been given 45 days to complete the task of formulating and suggesting amendments to the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006.
The government's response came on a batch of PILs filed by Swami Achutananda Tirath and seven others, which cited various studies showing that materials like urea, detergent and caustic soda were used to prepare synthetic milk in different states like Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Synthetic milk is dangerous to human life. Doctors have described it as white poison, which, along with its by-products, could cause serious diseases like cancer.
The Karnataka government has recently admitted to getting disturbing reports about rampant adulteration of milk supplied by private dairies in neighbouring states and decided to bring in a legislation against it.