BANGALORE: Senior citizens Gyanendra Sharma and Beena Sharma got a shock on Wednesday morning as they got ready to have their morning cuppa when they saw a dead lizard in a milk sachet. They called up their milk supplying agent and the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) whose officials visited them on Wednesday evening.
The couple from Chandigarh is visiting their son in Jalahalli. “I was shocked to see the lizard popping into the vessel from the sachet when we poured out the milk. We buy one and half litres every day in half-litre sachets. The lizard didn’t fall from the wall or ceiling. We didn’t open the other two packets. We contacted the quality control wing of Nandini using the number printed on the sachet,” Gyanendra Sharma told TOI. The sachet of Shubham Nandini milk was priced at Rs 16.50 per half litre.
Sharma bought the milk from Sri BKR Milk Agency in Jalahalli Cross. When contacted, Nagaraj JN, its proprietor, said he was aware of the complaint. “I was not in Bangalore when I heard of it. My agency only supplies Nandini milk to customers. We’re not responsible for this incident. The customer contacted the dairy directly,” said Nagaraj, who supplies milk to 150 households in the area.
Following Sharma’s complaint, KMF officials from Tumkur dairy met the couple at their home. “I haven’t seen the lizard. Also, the milk was poured into a vessel. The lizard may have fallen from the ceiling or wall. The milk sachet was not intact. At the dairy, we use various filtering techniques as well as pest and rodent control programmes. We supplied them 1 litre of milk immediately,” GM Chandrappa, manager, Tumkur Dairy, KMF told TOI.
The officer said he hadn’t heard of such a complaint in 28 years of his service at KMF. According to KMF, such complaints will be taken only if the insect or lizard is seen floating inside an intact sachet. A report will be submitted after an inquiry, he added.
Sharma said, “We cannot give the sachet to them as we won’t have any proof. It’s only when the lizard came out of the sachet did we know it was there. How would we have known the lizard was floating in it?”
