Supply from Punjab: Peshawar admin told to monitor milk quality

Livestock director says we need more funds to buy equipment to check the quality of milk

PESHAWAR: Expressing concern over the supply of adulterated milk from Punjab, the Peshawar district government on Monday asked the district administration to keep a strict and regular check on its quality.

The issue came under discussion during the session of Peshawar District Council convened here by council’s deputy speaker Syed Qasim Ali Shah.

Officials of the livestock department, including Director Dr Masoom Shah, briefed members of the council on the issue.

According to Dr Shah, the department’s current budget was insufficient to properly check the milk quality, adding that the government had only allocated Rs5 million for laboratories, both fixed and mobile, in this regard.

“We need more funds for buying equipment to check the quality of milk in the city,” Shah told members of the council, adding that doctors posted in slaughterhouses were doing a better job.

Awami National Party’s Alam Zeb Yousafzai told the council that the livestock department had failed to properly check the milk quality.

“There is a need to set up a proper mechanism to check the milk supply coming from Punjab before it reached Peshawar,” he suggested.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehrek-i-Insaf’s Javed Mughal also lashed out at the livestock department and maintained that sick and dead animals were being slaughtered in slaughterhouses, creating a health hazard for the local people.

Another council member, Muhammad Ibrahim, said that the livestock and dairy department confined themselves to monitor rates of poultry products and did not bother to inspect slaughterhouses or dairy farms.

He called for taking swift action against officials of the livestock department who were allegedly selling not-for-sale medicines and animal vaccines to dairy farm owners.