Cockroaches and filth at Natore Kachagolla factory: owner jailed for a year, factory sealed

The Kachagolla whose taste and fame gave Natore a distinct identity across the country — and earned it Geographical Indication (GI) recognition — has been found being made amid cockroaches and filth at one traditional factory. A Pure Food Court raid on the factory of the old and well-known Dwarik Mistanna Bhandar, at Joykalibari in the Lal Bazar area of Natore town, uncovered the scene.

The establishment's owner, Rabindranath Kundu (55), was sentenced to one year of rigorous imprisonment over the incident, and the factory was permanently sealed. The raid was carried out on Wednesday night (11 November), and Pure Food Court judge and Natore Senior Judicial Magistrate Md Ibrahim Ali handed down the sentence. Kundu is a resident of the Joykalibari area of Natore town.

During the raid, the places where Kachagolla and Maya Kheer Sandesh were made and stored were found to be in an extremely unhygienic state, with food products lying uncovered on the floor. Large numbers of cockroaches were also present around the food, and the raid found that hygiene rules were not being followed in preparing and storing food.

The owner, Rabindranath Kundu, admitted his guilt during the raid. The court then sentenced him to one year of rigorous imprisonment under Section 33 of the Safe Food Act, 2013. About four maunds of Kachagolla found at the factory were seized and destroyed.

District food officer of the Food Safety Authority, Niamul Hasan, said Natore's Kachagolla is not merely the name of a sweet — it is part of the district's 250-year tradition and identity, is in demand across the country and has received official recognition as a GI product. Dwarik Mistanna Bhandar of Joykalibari is itself one of Natore's old and traditional sweet shops; its original Kachagolla was once supplied across the country and the establishment had a wide reputation for taste and quality.

In the same drive, a raid was carried out at a food-producing establishment (bakery) named Al Madina in the Harishpur area of Natore Sadar. Its owner was fined Tk 100,000 for producing products without expiry dates and for collecting and marketing products made in dirty conditions, with a three-month jail term ordered in default of payment.

Local resident Palash Kumar and others said the reputation of Natore's GI product Kachagolla is being harmed by a few dishonest traders who produce it in unhygienic and dirty conditions. They said everyone involved in such activities should be brought under the law.

Present at the raid were district food officer Niamul Hasan, National Consumer Rights Protection Directorate Natore office official Nazmul Hasan, District Sanitary Officer of the Natore Civil Surgeon office Mosammat Tajkeratul Nesa, safe food sample assistant Md Bapparaj, and Natore municipality sanitary inspector Uday Kumar Sarkar, along with officials of the departments concerned.

Civil society figures, meanwhile, demanded that to preserve the heritage of Natore's Kachagolla, hygiene and quality must be ensured at every stage of production, not just in name and identity — so that one establishment's irregularities do not put the reputation of the whole district's traditional GI product into question.