<i>Melamine free powder milk</i>
Photo: STAR
We agree that there is no substitute of breast-feeding for human baby. But in practice when a baby does not get enough milk, we have to arrange for supplementary food suitable for a baby. Cow's milk is the best supplementary baby food known to us. In Bangladesh scarcity of cow's milk is an established fact. The government has imposed excess customs duty, VAT and supplementary duty to encourage production of milk in the country but in last two decades no significant development has been achieved. Very insignificant quantity of milk is produced here. Most of the babies in Bangladesh are deprived of fresh milk owing to exorbitant price tag. Babies belonging to the rich and the middle classes depend on imported powder milk. In recent times, unacceptable amount of melamine, an industrial artificial protein has been found in imported powder milk. As a result, import and marketing of most of the brands of milk that were available in the country have been banned by the relevant authorities. Babies who do not get sufficient breast-feeding opportunity are faced with difficulties. Since the importers have stopped importing powder milk it is now necessary to import full-cream and half-cream powder milk by government agency like Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) directly through government-to-government negotiation. For the next three months TCB should import 30.000 M Ton of full-cream and half-cream powder milk to supplement the present shortage of milk in Bangladesh. Every fortnight one consignment of 5,000 M Ton of powder milk in airtight poly packs of 2kg, 1kg and 500grams should be distributed for the next three months. It may be mentioned that the Chinese government has taken measures against melamine contamination in milk. Our government should also take up steps with the Chinese government to import uncontaminated powder milk from China.
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