LAHORE, June 24: Rangers are being accused of involved in the production and marketing of spurious aerated beverages in the border areas by the manufacturers and the City District Government food security officials.
The question of involvement of rangers in the business has arisen following the production of their passes by the stockists caught by the CDG food inspectors during the ongoing campaign against the spurious beverages launched on the complaints of the manufacturers of popular brands. A pass produced by the driver of van (LHF 9599) caught loaded with spurious beverages recently has been sent to District Coordination Officer Khalid Sultan, who is monitoring the campaign.
Rangers’ passes are reported to have been shown to the inspectors by stockists during raids in Daroghawala, Harbanspura, Lidhar and Bedian areas. Beverages seized from the depots of the stockists have been found to be spurious on analysis at the CDG food laboratory.
The sales manager of one of three leading beverage companies told Dawn that the manufacturers were informed about the involvement of rangers in spurious beverages business by their sales staff. Recovery of rangers’ passes from the stockists of such beverages by the CDG food inspectors had given credence to their suspicion. The beverage manufacturers association would take up the matter with the rangers’ high-ups, he said.
The sales manager of another company said that the rangers were in a position to market anything in more than 60 border villages because no vehicle could reach there without their permission. He said that the rangers were not only producing fake aerated beverages themselves but were also facilitating the sale of beverages bottled by others.
He said that rangers were bottling 500 crates of spurious drinks daily at each of their small scale plants at Baidian and Wagha. He said that the rangers had ensured the sale of the beverages bottled by them and those operating under their patronage first and allowed the beverage companies to supply drinks to the retailers whose demand could not be met by them.
A CDG food security official said that rangers’ involvement in spurious beverages production and marketing had first surfaced in 1989 when a food inspector caught a junior commissioned officer with a pickup loaded with the same on Multan Road. The consignment was being taken to a rangers’ official residing at Awan Town for supply to retailers.
He said that a major coming to the Jinnah Hall for the release of the consignment said that the rangers were bottling the beverages for public welfare. Mian Muhammad Azhar, who was the mayor of Lahore at that time, took up the matter with the rangers high command and it was decided that rangers would use plain lids on beverages bottled by them for identification. They abided by the assurance for some time but stopped doing so later on.
He said that spurious beverages were in great demand among retailers because a crate of 24 bottles was available for Rs60 whereas the genuine product cost Rs180 per crate. A bottle of spurious beverages purchased for Rs2.50 could be sold for Rs9.