Bara, September 13

Supply Management and Consumer Protection Department has imposed a ban on production and sale of cooking oil after a monitoring team from the department inspected Shivashakti Ghee Industry in Jitpur-Simara Sub-metropolitan City of Bara last night.

Section Officer at the department Mohan Kumar Pudasaini’s team had raided the industry after complaints regarding production of substandard oil at the factory were filed at the office. The team has banned the industry from producing and selling cooking oil until further notice.

The industry produces Sajan cooking oil.

The Food Technical and Quality Control unit had carried out sample test at the industry, earlier. Pudasaini said the test showed that the cooking oil produced at the industry was sub-standard. “After conducting tests on Sajan, Dhara and Patalzali brands of cooking oil, the team found that the oil was inedible,” he said.

The company belongs to lawmaker Raj Kumar Agrawal from Rastriya Prajatantra Party and a businessman Sandip Kumar Kadariya.  “We wrote to them, asking them to stop oil production, but they did not receive the letter,” said Pudasaini. He said that the team however notified them about the directive verbally. “Action will be taken against the industry owners if they ignore our directive,” he added.

The monitoring team could not inspect the ghee plant due to obstruction by entrepreneurs.

Earlier, the government agency had received a complaint that Shivashakiti ghee produced there was adulterated. Pudasaini said the monitoring team returned to Hetuada the same night after the local administration did not help them inspect the plant in question.