Time to take up cleansing of systems in and out

The adulteration of ghee with LARD, fish oil etc., which is used in the making of laddu prasadam at Tirumala during the previous regime, has badly hurt the sentiments of crores of Hindus across the globe. It is certainly is an unpardonable crime and the perpetrators including those who have been making some funny and illogical comments need to be shown their place. There should be no compromise in that whether they belong to legal profession or any other profession. Unfortunately, statements of some grand old political parties like Congress are laced with sarcasm trying to take pot shots at Modi.

Well, the issue of adulteration should not stop with punishing the guilty of those who indulged in sacrilege by adulterating Laddu mahaprasadam of Lord Venkateswara.

It should be extended to checking everything. Adulteration in India has become an institution. Nothing is left as uncontaminated: Food, veggies and fruits, milk, spices, honey, even water. The political system should come on top of the list of adulteration, though.

Neatly packed spurious foods are proving fatal. In many temples and places of worship free food is provided to the devotees. There has been any number of cases where students had fallen sick after mid-day meals in schools. All this happens because we do not have any proper monitoring system. The data shared in Parliament in 2022-23 also indicates that 25% of food samples tested were adulterated. There is an acute shortage of labs and men to test food materials. The plan of Prime Ministers ‘Suraj’ 2047 should give high priority to this aspect as well.

From ghee, honey, turmeric and chilli powders to tomato sauce and soya chunks, the food adulteration network runs deep. The products are prepared using harmful chemicals, colours and sold to unsuspecting consumers at cheaper rates. A report suggests that spurious ghee is a heady mix of palm oil, vanaspati and yellow chemical colour; honey is prepared using water, sugar and chemical colour. For turmeric powder, the adulterators use waste rice powder and non-edible synthetic yellow colour.

Similarly, production of branded and popular tomato or chilli sauce would cost Rs 120 per kg but the spurious and low-quality costs only Rs 30. The genuine sauce costs Rs 160 per kg having a profit margin of 20 pc but the fake one is sold at Rs 70 per kg with an 80 pc profit margin. The production cost of pure turmeric and chilli powders is Rs 150 per kg and adulterated is Rs 70 per kg. Unadulterated turmeric and chilli powders are available for Rs 260 per kg with a profit margin of 20 per cent and the spurious powders are sold for Rs 120 per kg having a profit margin of about 60 pc.

Similarly, adulteration of clarified butter or ghee is equally profitable with the unscrupulous elements earning 40 pc profit from the business. Production of ghee costs Rs 300 per kg and a kg of the spurious stock can be prepared with just Rs 80. Pure ghee is available in the market between Rs 350 and Rs 500, the spurious counterpart is available at Rs 150 a kg.

The laws do not instill any kind of fear among those who violate the rules and hence soon they are back in business. High level of corruption among the handful of staff to check adulteration hinders cleansing the system. It is high time the Centre and state governments sit across the table and come up with methodology and ensure that systems are put in place to meet the challenge of high level of adulteration. Sub-standard food items laced with chemicals are flooding the markets.