The Gujarat High Court today asked the state government to take "strict action" against the traders using chemicals to artificially ripen fruits, especially mangoes.
A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi passed the order orally, taking suo motu (on its own) note of a newspaper report on the practice of ripening fruits, especially mangoes, artificially and before time using chemicals such as calcium carbide or ethylene.
The order was issued to the state government and the municipal corporations of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Surat, Rajkot and Bhavnagar.
Chemicals such as calcium carbide and ethylene are prohibited and harmful to health, and their use as ripening agents is not permissible, said the high court bench.
It instructed the municipal corporations to first issue warning letters to fruit traders, and "immediately take strict action" if the practise continued.
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