india

Updated: Sep 13, 2017 17:16 IST

Patanjali, the food and Ayurvedic products company set up by Yoga guru Ramdev, has been accused of distributing expired products to people affected by floods in Assam.

Local TV channels showed people accusing Patanjali of handing out old milk powder and juice packets. Some carried expiry dates of last year.

“When we asked the company’s representative in Majuli, they admitted there were some old products with them, but said those were not been distributed among people affected by the floods,” Majuli deputy commissioner Pallav Gopal Jha told Hindustan Times. The administration has launched an inquiry.

The company too denied distributing bad products, but said it cannot “always control the logistics of transport and distribution and are not responsible if someone other than our representatives indulge in some wrong doing”.

“We don’t send out date expired products from our warehouses. Patanjali has helped the flood-affected in Assam purely on humanitarian grounds,” said Patanjali spokesperson SK Tijariwala.

The district administration has asked the company representatives to either handover or destroy the expired products.

Local media reports said several people fell sick after consuming Patanjali’s products, but the district administration denied it.

This is not the first time Patanjali, which is setting up a mega food park for Rs 1,300 crore in Assam, has been in controversy in Assam.

In November, an adult female elephant and its calf fell into an open pit at the under-construction food park in Balipara. While the calf was rescued, the wild elephant died.

In July this year, a woman fell severely sick in Nagaon district in central Assam after allegedly consuming expired products given out by an authorised Patanjali retailer.