People purchase sweets at a shop in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, Oct. 25: People love to splurge on sweets during Diwali. But the recent raids on outlets selling adulterated milk products have left revellers worried as they buy sweets for their loved ones.

In the past few days, the residents of the state capital have seen a series of raids carried out by health officials who seized and destroyed tonnes of adulterated milk, khoya (kheer) and paneer — the main ingredients of sweets. But the irony is that the health department wing that conducts such raids does not have adequate manpower to keep a tab on spurious sweets. Health department secretary Sanjay Kumar told The Telegraph: “In Bihar, there are 22 food inspectors as against the requirement of 650. There should be at least a food inspector in each block. Neighbouring Uttar Pradesh has about 950 food inspectors.”

Besides, in the entire state, there only one food testing laboratory at Agamkaun in Patna. The central government, with an aim to keep check on adulterated food products, enacted the Food Safety and Standards Regulation Act, 2011 with new rules being introduced.

According to the new act, a food inspector has to inspect outlets that have licence for manufacturing, handling, packing or selling food stuff on a regular interval.

Kumar said: “We will ask the state government to appoint more food inspectors so that there can be regular inspection of food products. All shops selling food products should have registrations and shops having business of Rs 12 lakh per year should have licence from the health department.”

Demand for priests

Priests are high on demand this Diwali and many of them have already got multiple appointments for Lakshmi Puja — both at homes and as well as shops. The priests are charging anything between Rs 500 and Rs 3,000 and the charges can go up depending on the puja hours.