A day after seizing several hundreds of bags of adulterated chilli powder found dumped near a cold storage at Madhira, sleuths of the Vigilance and Enforcement wing unearthed around one lakh bags containing the residue of chilli seed derived after oil extraction at a cold storage near Pallipadu in Konijerla mandal on Saturday.
The seizure of a huge haul of adulterated chilli powder at Madhira on Friday exposed the well organised inter-State chilli powder adulteration racket and grave threat to public health.
Dangerous substance
Sources said that some organised gangs based in Madhira and its surrounding mandals were engaged in adulteration of chilli powder using potentially dangerous substances and marketing them through a wide network spread in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Meanwhile, a team of officials of the Vigilance and Enforcement wing led by Vigilance Inspector Venkatesh conducted a raid on a cold storage at Pallipadu and seized around one lakh bags of "chilli seed residue."
The vigilance team initiated a detailed probe into the incident under the supervision of the Regional Vigilance and Enforcement Officer V Surender Reddy to unravel the facts.
When contacted, Mr Venkatesh said nearly one lakh bags each containing 40 kg of residue of chilli seed were seized from the cold storage at Pallipadu.
The samples of the seized consignment would be sent to the State Food Laboratory at Nacharam in Hyderabad to ascertain the exact content of the seized material.
Vigil was stepped up in Mudigonda and other mandals in Khammam division to verify the chilli stocks in some cold storages, suspected to be involved in "adulteration of chilli powder."
