LAHORE: A number of milk suppliers and sellers staged protest demonstrations and sit-ins in many parts of the city on Thursday against the Punjab Food Authority (PFA) for allegedly victimising them on the pretext of anti-adulteration drive.

Having arrived from various villages and small towns of Kasur and Okara, they first started gathering on Multan Road (near EME/DHA) by their trucks and vans laden with milk containers and blocked the road. Later, they reached the city’s main intersection/entry point Thokar Niaz Beg and blocked Multan Road.

Carrying placards and banners inscribed with demands and slogans against the PFA and the Punjab government, they chanted slogans and warned the government against closing their business.

“We have been left with no option but to protest. Now the government will have to pay the cost of highhandedness it is doing with us by wasting and discarding our milk without any reason,” Javaid, a milk supplier, told Dawn.

They put forward two demands for PFA, govt to consider

The protesters later moved to other roads in the form of a rally and succeeded in reaching Charing Cross, The Mall, where they staged a sit-in. Their association office-bearers and a local MPA were leading them.

“We demand that the PFA or any other department stop our milk containers at Lahore’s entry/exit points for checking quality and if there is any doubt about quality, they should first take samples of the commodity and keep our transport in cold storage till lab test reports. And if the test report proves our milk substandard, we ourselves will discard or drain it before the officials,” Rana Muhammad Irshad Khan of the Punjab’s Milk Suppliers and Sellers Association said.

He said the PFA Act 2011 bound the officials to discard the milk or any other commodity or seal any food outlet/milk shop after the sample test report. But the ongoing drive was hardly in line with rules and regulations, he claimed. He said the association’s second demand was about fixing the milk and yogurt’s officially notified rates that had not been rationalised for long.

“We are being forced to sell milk and yogurt at Rs65 and 70 respectively, whereas we want these products to be sold at Rs80 and 90 per kg,” he said, adding that the drive was meant to encourage the public to buy packed milk of various brands, especially to facilitate two companies owned by political bigwigs.

He said just a couple of days ago, the Renala Khurd assistant commissioner discarded a huge quantity of milk being transported to Lahore without taking samples. The association members tried hard to drive home their point of view in meetings with the PFA DG and other senior officials but to no avail.

He said if the government didn’t accept their demands, they would also bring thousands of buffaloes to Charing Cross in next demonstration.

Rana Tariq Mushtaq, another association office-bearer, highlighted the demerits of packed milk and demanded imposition of ban on the import of dry milk.

“If anyone proves that our milk is adulterated with any chemical, detergent powder etc, we will ourselves close our business,” said a trader.

Later, representatives of the milk sellers held a meeting with the government officials and the protesters dispersed on the assurance of consideration of their demands in the next two days.

Meanwhile, there was shortage of milk in Lahore as most shops remained closed on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2015

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