BAHAWALPUR: The district administration has acquired five milk adulterant testing kits to check the supply of adulterated milk across the district.

District Coordination Officer (DCO) Dr Ehtesham Anwar Mahar told a press briefing in his office on Thursday that one kit would be provided to each tehsil of the district.

The kits were acquired with the help of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore. Each kit consists of lactometers, thermometers, gas cylinders and some chemicals. He said teams would periodically raid milk collection centres, dairy farms and milk shops to test the quality of milk. In case of positive tests, culprits would be fined.

District Health Officer Dr Zeeshan Rauf explained the usage of kits’ accessories and how to conduct a milk test.

The DCO said the administration would also check adulteration in ghee and oil.

He said the administration had now made it mandatory for butchers and workers of poultry and mutton shops to have their blood work done to ascertain that they did not carry Hepatitis B and C and TB. For the purpose, he said, blood collection camps had been established at tehsil headquarters. Earlier, he said, such tests were only mandatory for the butchers of Ramazan bazaars.

Also, the DCO briefed about flood control measures in the district, saying that the district had been divided in four sectors. He said 300 employees of Rescue 1122 had trained by the army in water rescue courses.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2016