HC to hear on BSTI reports on Sunday

Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) has handed over four separate test reports on pasteurised milk -- produced by 14 companies -- to its lawyer for submission before the High Court.

Barrister Sarkar MR Hassan, who received the reports from BSTI recently, told The Daily Star yesterday that he will submit the reports to the HC during its hearing on the writ petition on the issue on Sunday.

The BSTI lawyer, however, refused to reveal the contents of the reports, terming them a sub-judice matter.

Earlier in the day, Barrister MR Hassan sought permission from the HC bench of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir Lytton to swear an affidavit for submitting the test reports before it.

The bench also adjourned hearing on the petition till Sunday, so that the writ petitioner’s lawyer Aneek R Haque can get copies of the reports and examine them.

Contacted, Barrister Aneek told this correspondent last evening that he was yet to get copy of the test reports from BSTI’s lawyer.

While hearing the writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Tanvir Ahmed, the HC bench on July 14 directed the BSTI to test pasteurised milk produced by 14 companies, which are registered under the quality control authority, at four laboratories within a week.

The HC ordered for testing samples of the pasteurised milk to determine whether it contains hazardous substances such as antibiotics, detergent, coliform, staphylococcus and formalin.

The four institutions where the tests were conducted are -- Institute of Public Health, Bangladesh; International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b); Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute; and Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Controversy regarding milk stirred up last month, after a team of Dhaka University researchers and BSTI gave conflicting test reports on milk. In its tests, the DU team found detergent and antibiotics in samples of packaged milk available in kitchen markets. But BSTI said it did not find any harmful substances in the milk samples it tested.