The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday passed orders asking the State government to ensure that masoor dhal was fit for human consumption while being supplied through the public distribution system. It directed the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation to adopt a strict protocol by ensuring that masoor dhal was brought into the supply chain only after quality check by ruling out the presence of kesari dhal .
The Division Bench of Justices K.K. Sasidharan and G.R. Swaminathan said that the State should ensure that masoor dhal was supplied without any adulteration, like adding colour, and that samples must be sent to accredited food analytical laboratories for testing and ensuring they were free of kesari dhal . The Bench further asked the authorities to make use of technologies to ensure quality checks.
Kesari dhal , a plant similar to masoor dhal , grows along with it. But there are tools like grader and colour sorter to identify and segregate them. The government had earlier withdrawn masoor dhal from the Nutritious Meal Programme and anganwadis and replaced it with toor dhal .
