YSRCP demands ban on Heritage Milk

Hyderabad, April 8, 2013: YSR
Congress has demanded the State Government to ban Heritage milk as it contains
the synthetic compound formalin which leads to cancer and other intestine
disorders; the State should also order a full-fledged inquiry into the
processing of the milk by the company.

“Kerala Government has already
banned the product and has notified it through a gazette In August 2012 stating
that formalin is added as preservative and it is injurious to health. We want
the State to follow suit and ban the Heritage milk immediately,” party
spokesperson Jupudi Prabhakar Rao told reporters here on Monday.

Heritage Foods, owned by TDP
President N Chandrababu Naidu and his family members, has been widely using
formalin as a preservative in the milk which causes cancer, intestine disorders
and also affects liver. Kerala Government banned the products of Heritage Foods
which are supplied under the brand name Heritage Paedmanabha in that state, he
said and circulated copies of the Gazette.

Formalin or formaldehyde was
found in excess of permissible limits in all the three varieties
pasteurised, homogenised and standardised milk and the Commissioner of Food
Safety has issued the order banning the product.

However, the State Government
did not take the incident into cognizance.

Three persons were charred to
death in the accident at Heritage Foods plant in Visakhspatnam district on
Sunday. Though the incident occurred due to lack of safety measure, the State
was unmoved, he said.

Even when a group of workers
and their family members were on their way to question Chandrababu Naidu, who
is on padayatra in the neighboring East Godavari district, the government
misused police and other official machinery to foil their bid to reach the TDP
leader.

“Why is the State Government
shielding Chandrababu Naidu and not allowing the concerned department’s to
function on their own. If the two parties have ganged-up for political reasons,
that is a different issue, but why should the innocent people suffer?” he
asked.

On the Heritage issue, he
said: the Kerala government has referred the Central Act of Food Safety and
Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the State should take a serious note of
it and ban Heritage Milk in the state and take stringent action besides
ordering an inquiry into the processing and use of other ingredients.

“We will also raise this
matter in the Assembly and Council as well as it concerns the health of general
public that is unaware of the repercussions and are silently suffering for no
fault of theirs,” he said.

Even the website Centre for
Science and Environment clearly mentions of the harmful ingredients being used
in milk that is being supplied various business houses. One of the prominent
points the website has mentioned is that formalin is being used much beyond the
permissible limits, he said.

The Visakhapatnam incident
should also be taken up seriously as it concerns the working conditions of the
employees. All the persons who were charred to death were working on contract
basis. A detailed investigation is needed to assess the reasons for the
accident and if the unit is equipped with preventive mechanism.

We demand that the law should
take its own course in the accident case at Heritage Foods, Visakhapatnam plant
and an inquiry should be ordered whether proper safety norms were followed or
not by the plant, he said.