Ahmedabad Municipal Corp raids fail to halt ‘unhealthy’ mango business

It seems the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s raids on mango pulp dealers have had little effect on the unhealthy trade.

Health officials of the civic body have been destroying cans of adulterated pulp every day for the last one month but business goes on unhindered. On Wednesday too, officials raided 40 shops in Isanpur and destroyed large quantity of adulterated pulp.  

The shops and mini factories that were raided on Wednesday have been churning out mango pulp for many years, but had remained unnoticed due to their location. According to in-charge municipal health officer Dr Bhavin Solanki, these mini factories are using rotten mangoes and chemicals to make the mango pulp. "We seized and destroyed 4,300 kg of mangoes, and 4,100 liters of mango pulp from these shops," said Dr Solanki. To send out a message to other adulterators, AMC is also imposing huge fines on these shop owners. On Wednesday too, the civic body collected Rs36,000 as penalty from the shops that were raided.

"If they don't improve even now, we will seal these shops" said Dr Solanki. To prove their point, the officials even sealed a shop in the area.

Apart from Isanpur, AMC's health squad also conducted raids on small vendors near Nava Vadaj and Akhbarnagar circle. The officials found 500 liters of adulterated mango pulp from these vendors, and destroyed it immediately. "This is a lucrative business. Big as well as small vendors are equally involved in this practice," Dr Solanki added.

Apart from these shops, the AMC has already sealed one Ambika Juice, a shop that had reportedly provided mango pulp to the wedding in Paldi in which 200 guests had to be hospitalized for food poisoning after consuming pulp and other sweets on Tuesday.