Corruption At Goa Dairy, Political Compulsions Main Cause For Milk Adulteration And Sub-standard Quality In The State: Goa People’s Front

Panaji: The Goa People’s Front – a forum of individuals from across Goa dedicated to fighting corruption and adulteration of food items and other consumables like petrol and diesel in the State, has claimed that due to large scale organised corruption at Goa Diary, the quality of milk produced and sold in the State has gone down significantly.

“It is a known fact that every 10 liters of milk sold by local producers to Goa Dairy, is mixed with about 1.5 to 2 liters of water at source by the local producers themselves. This is known to Goa Dairy officials, who turn a blind eye and readily procure the produce as their palms are greased,” Jonathan D’Souza of the Goa People’s Front alleged, while speaking to media persons in Goa today.

Milk sold and consumed in Goa, particularly in poor and economically backward areas is substantially sub-standard, the Goa People’s Front claimed, adding that they were moving the High Court of Bombay at Goa in this regard.

The other reason for inaction by Goa Dairy officials is because they do not want to upset local groups of dairy farmers who are vote banks of local politicians. There is a lot of local politics involved, but in the end it is the people of Goa who are forced to consume sub-standard or adulterated milk, due to vested selfish interests and vote-bank politics.

“After the milk is processed and packaged, Goa Dairy sells the packaged milk to institutional buyers in bulk in packaging of 5 liters, 10 liters and even 20 liters. These bulk packages find their way to unscrupulous elements who further dilute the milk with an equal quantity of water and re-package them in spurious or fake packets and sell the highly adulterated product to poor localities and slum areas in Goa at cheaper prices.

Such mass scale, organised adulteration is going on at small ‘galas’ or units on the outskirts of Ponda and at Curti, D’Souza alleged, adding that several such videos have been doing the rounds of social media over the last few years, but the authorities have not taken any action due to political pressure.

Dairy farmers on Monday poured hundreds of liters of milk on the road outside the Goa Assembly complex in a symbolic protest against the rejection of nearly 4,000 litres of milk by the Gujarat-based Surat Milk Union Ltd (SUMUL).

Goan Dairy farmers were protesting against the stringent checks imposed by SUMUL on the produce at source, which resulted in huge quantities of locally produced milk being rejected by SUMUL for being sub-standard or partially adulterated.

While Goa Dairy turns a blind eye to minor and sometimes not so minor quality issues, due to in-house corruption and other political concerns, SUMUL began cracking the whip on erring producers and rejected consignments of sub-standard milk produce.

Goa Dairy officials not only take cuts and haftas from dairy farmers in Goa, but are also controlled by political bosses who instruct them and reprimand them if any milk produced locally is rejected, the Goa People’s Front alleged.

Senior Goa Dairy officials have expressed helplessness when we confronted them, because certain politicians were interfering in the milk procurement process and the Dairy was forced to buy sub-standard or water-adulterated milk from dairy farmers due to political compulsions, the Goa People’s Front has claimed.