Legislators grill Dy CM over milk adulteration

Legislators grill Dy CM over milk adulteration
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 30
Legislators of the Upper House today “unitedly” grilled Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand over the issue of adulterated milk and other products being supplied in the state.

When the issue was raised by BR Kundal of the Congress during question hour, who asked about the steps initiated by the state government to check the sale of adulterated products, legislators from the opposition PDP as well as the ruling NC and Congress supported him and raised supplementary questions.

Even the acting chairman of the House, Arvinder Singh Micky, termed it a serious matter and sought appropriate action from the government in this regard.

The issue generated heat when the Deputy Chief Minister, in his reply, said, “The Jammu and Srinagar municipal corporations are looking into the issue and have taken samples to check the authenticity of milk and its byproducts.”

Dissatisfied over the reply, Kundal said, “It seems the government is only concerned about the capital cities and not the entire state as nothing has been stated about the other cities.”

Reacting to this, Tara Chand said, “I can only give you the details of the action taken in the capital cities as the list of the entire state is very long.”

He added, “The Jammu Municipal Corporation has collected 95 samples of milk from April 2010 to February 2011 under the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act, of which 73 samples confirmed to the legal standards, 12 were adulterated and the reports of the remaining 10 are awaited.”

“Similarly, in Srinagar five samples were found adulterated during the same period,” said Tara Chand. Ajat Shatru Singh of the NC said, “The government should take this issue seriously as it is directly related to public health.”

Leh, country’s largest district, has only four ambulances

Leh, country’s largest district, has only four ambulances
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 30
Leh, the largest district of the country in terms of area (45,110 sq km), has an acute shortage of ambulances. The district, which comprises 113 villages, has only four ambulances to cater to patients of the far-flung areas.

While replying to a question asked by Narboo Gialchan of the Congress in the Upper House, Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma said today that the people of Leh were suffering due to the non-availability of ambulances.

“As per the criteria fixed by the state government, Leh district has been sanctioned 17 ambulances, but so far only four ambulances have been provided to the hospitals there,” said Sham Lal, during Question Hour.

In the detail provided to the House, the minister said two out of four ambulances were provided in 2009-2010 under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

However, he assured the House that only Leh was facing the problem, as all other districts were provided with adequate number of ambulances.

He said, “For example, take Doda district which is more prone to accidents, there we have provided 27 ambulances against the sanctioned strength of 18 ambulances”.

Dissatisfied over the minister’s reply, legislators Murtaza Ahmad Khan of the PDP and Naresh Gupta of the Congress also raised supplementary questions.

“There is no hard and fast rule while sanctioning the ambulances in all districts,” Sham Lal said.

He added, “The Health Department takes decision keeping in view the requirements”.

However, he did not assure the House to provide more ambulances to the district.

As per the criteria fixed by the state government, Leh district has been sanctioned 17 ambulances, but so far only four ambulances have been provided to the hospitals there — Sham Lal Sharma, Health Minister