The district health department in collaboration with city district government has initiated a campaign to check sale of adulterated and unhygienic food items in markets though a huge proportion of population might be unable to get pure food during the holy month of Ramazan.

In the past, such campaigns were launched more than two weeks before the advent of Ramazan. However this year the launching of a special campaign against sale of adulterated food items during Ramazan got late. Consumers throughout the district have already started complaining about adulterated food items in both retail and wholesale markets.

“We have launched a special campaign against sale of adulterated food items in collaboration with district food and health departments to clear markets from unhygienic food items,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner General Saif Anwar Jappa when contacted by ‘The News’ on Friday.

He claimed that the special teams have already been formed which would inspect all markets to check sale of substandard food items.

Every year during Ramazan, the sale of certain food items, including fruits, vegetables, edible oil and gram flour register sharp increase giving room to wrongdoers involved in food adulteration to fleece the public.

District Health Officer Dr. Khalid Randhawa, when contacted by ‘The News’ on Friday, said that the health department has launched a special campaign on Thursday. “We hope that we will be able to clear markets from substandard food items to a significant extent in a few days,” he said while responding to a query.

He said that on Thursday afternoon, the health department confiscated 26 bags of adulterated gram flour, each containing 37 kilograms of the commodity, from Ganjmandi which was being transported for supply to shopkeepers in markets. “The adulterated gram flour was prepared from maize flour after mixing it with powder of ‘daal channa’,” he explained.

The team of the health department also confiscated as many as six bags of the substance to be used for adulterating gram flour and lodged an FIR with police against Faisal Akram, Mohammad Javed and Niaz under Sections 273, 420 and 468 of the Local Government Amendment Ordinance 2005 and Section 141 Subsections 17, 18, 19 of the PPC, said Dr. Randhawa.

He said that the bags of adulterated gram flour were carrying brand names, including ‘Do Phool Brand’, ‘Sitara Brand’, ‘Shaheen Brand’ and ‘Missile Brand’. “A network of businessmen is involved in sale of substandard gram flour in the market though we caught only three persons,” he said while responding to a query.

He added that the health department has requested police to investigate into the matter thoroughly to get to the network.

To a query, he said, if anyone from among public witnesses sale of substandard food items in any market of the district, he or she should contact his office on telephone number 051-4831065 to enable the health department to control the menace effectively.