The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The High Court yesterday directed the government to produce by November 9 (Sunday) all the four sets of reports of laboratory test done at home and abroad on the eight brands of melamine-tainted powdered milk.

A division bench comprising Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui passed the interim order following a supplementary application on the pending public interest litigation (PIL) writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB).

The government meanwhile obtained the test reports on the questionable eight brands from the Dhaka University, BSTI, Atomic Energy Commission and Bangkok. These are Yashili-1, Yashili-2 and Sweet Baby-2 of China, Diploma and Red Cow of Australia, Dano of Denmark, and Nido and Anlene of New Zealand.

Moving the supplementary application, Manzill Murshid, the counsel for the HRPB, submitted that the chairman of the department of chemistry, Dhaka University, had disclosed that toxic melamine was found in seven of the brands as per the laboratory test report in Thailand, but the government kept mum about this. Earlier the Atomic Energy Commission also submitted an identical report, he said.

The counsel told the court that the government actions appeared to hide something, as it tends to take decisions on the issue bypassing the opinion of the expert committee.

Moreover, he said, the reports were not made available to the media and as a result, the whole matter is shrouded in mystery.

However, lawyers for the suspected Dano, Red Cow and Nido, who were allowed to become additional party in the writ, submitted before the court that the laboratory test reports found melamine in only three brands of powdered milk.

They said the embargo on the other suspected brands - Dano, Red Cow and Nido - should be lifted as the children were being made to suffer in the absence of their sale and the businessmen incurring lossess due to the embargo on their sale, display and marketing.

Former attorney general Mahmudul Islam, Barrister Rokan Uddin Mahmud and Barrister Tania Ameer appeared for Red Cow, Nido and Dano respectively.

Deputy attorney general Rajik Al Jalil stood for the government.

Earlier, on October 23, the High Court, following the PIL writ petition, directed the government to take immediate steps for putting embargo on display and sale of the suspected melamine-tainted powdered milk of eight foreign brands.

The HC had given the directive amid public concern over initial findings about the toxic industrial chemical in the powdered milk.

The HC had also issued a twin-rule upon the government to explain why its failure to stop sale of melamine-tainted powdered milk should not be declared illegal and why a direction should not be given for taking necessary steps for protecting the citizen's health.

Secretaries of the ministry of home, finance, commerce, and health, as well as chairmen of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Atomic Energy Commission, the Director General of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) and the Inspector General of Police have been made respondents to the writ.