Legal action against Ja-Ela businessman for storing rotten food items

By Tisss Kotinkaduwa   

A large stock of consumer goods including potatoes, big onion, vegetables and fruits unfit for human consumption were seized and destroyed during a raid carried out on the stores complex of a business establishment in Thudella in Ja-Ela.

Legal action was being initiated against the businessman who was preparing to sell the stock to wayside hotels and houses for cheap prices.    

A team of PHIs from Ja-Ela Urban Council and Ja-Ela Pradeshiya Sabha carried out the raid on a tip- off from the public. They said the businessman concerned had brought six lorry loads of discarded consumer goods from the Pettah to be washed and cleaned for distribution. During the raid, the PHIs sealed a cool room in the stores complex in which they found a stock of 1,300kilos of pork and chicken unfit for human consumption.   

Chief PHI, Jaela UC Anura Abeyratne said than 20 employees were sorting out and cleaning the stock of potatoes and big onion for distribution. He said the stock of consumer goods seized during the raid was destroyed and legal action initiated against the trader.   

PHIs S.W.Wijesijnghem, W.P.K. Amarasekara, and A.M.Bandara carried out the raid on the instructions of Head PHI Anura Abeyratne.