LAHORE, June 13: Under a directive from the Punjab governor, Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool (retired), the chief secretary has ordered a crackdown on food adulterators and manufacturers of sub-standard and spurious drugs.

The chief secretary issued the orders while presiding over a meeting on Thursday. .

The chief secretary said special attention should be paid to check adulteration in milk and milk products, oils and oil products, syrups, drinks, spices, bakery products and sweetmeats.

The process of prosecution for food adulteration should be streamlined so that the adulterators are adequately penalized. The manufacturers of the sub-standard foods should also be brought to book.

He said the six drug courts in the province had imposed Rs25 million fines in 2,848 cases during 2001 and 1,126 drug stores had been sealed.

He said 2,401 cases had been registered under drug laws after taking 8,930 medicine samples.