Residents lead charge against adulterators

Linah Baliga & Nitasha Natu | Times News Network 11^th Jan 2012

From filming adulterators on the sly to tipping off Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) officials and the police, citizens’ groups in several areas are now at the forefront of the battle against adulteration. A case in point is the New Link Road Residents’ Forum in Dahisar, who in May 2011 helped the authorities catch key people involved in an adulteration racket. Activists in the area took the initiative to track the kingpin Kumar Shankar—who had been operating in the Borivli-Dahisar belt—and tailed him for more than a month.

“In 2010, a local court had banned Shankar from entering Mumbai and Thane regions because of his adulteration activities. But he was back in business in Borivli the next year. We got in touch with DCP Mahesh Patil, and worked with the cops to nab him,” said Harish Pandey, member, New Link Road Residents’ Forum.

While tracking Shankar, members of the forum learnt his modus operandi, which involved 300 delivery boys. They would pick up milk from a specific milk vendor in Borivli and systematically dilute the liquid before repackaging it and selling it. “We managed to track down four locations where gang members were adulterating milk in the most unhygienic conditions. They would pour the milk into a vessel, and then add an equal quantity of water. They would then pour the milk into plastic bags—usually used bags sold by tea vendors for Re 1—and reseal them with a flame before selling it to unsuspecting residents,” said Pandey.

According to the activists, the gang would also acquire packaged milk bags, carefully slit the edges, remove 20% of the content and fill the bags with cold water before resealing them. “Cold water prevents the milk from curdling,” he added.

Adulterators usually use products like sodium bicarbonate to increase the shelf life of milk, starch to increase its viscosity, sweetening agents to improve taste and urea to lend the final mixture uniformity in texture.

Forum members were on to Shankar’s gang in 2010 when they were flooded by complaints from residents about milk emitting a foul smell or splitting when boiled. At the time, residents began questioning delivery boys in the area, and one or

two confessed to being a part of the racket.

“In 2010, we had planned an in-camera raid with the FDA. We thought we had succeeded in ending the racket, but Shankar began operating in the area again in 2011,” said Pandey. Shankar has now been externed from city limits till 2013.

It’s not just the forum that has taken the initiative. The Consumer Guidance Society (CGS) in association with faculty from Ratnam College in Bhandup is testing 200 samples of milk from the suburbs on January 9. CGS sells affordable kits to those who want to conduct tests at home.