City police has meanwhile arrested 10 persons in connection with the incident, in which 205 persons were admitted to city hospitals. Executive Health Officer, Dr Alka Karande, said that patients were doing well and were being closely monitored. The suspended officers, sanitary Inspectors (H East) S H Bansode and C P Mathai (H West), were in charge of these areas when the incident occurred.

A decision has also been taken to cancel the licenses of the five sweet shops from where the sweets were purchased and initiate action against them. They are Fashion Sweet Corner, Hotel Bhagirath, New Vijay Dairy, Satyam Sweets on Golibar Road and Krishna Dairy opposite Murugan Chawl. The decisions were taken at a meeting presided by Mayor Hareshwar Patil, civic commissioner K Nalinakshan, additionalcommissioner G S Gill and health officials.

A statement announcing the same was also made by additional municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar in the Standing Committee where a discussion was initiated through a point of order by newly-appointed Congress leader and area corporator K A Bastiwala, asking about any action the administration had taken. He was supported by Bharatiya Janata Party's Arun Deo, Shiv Sena's Vijay Daruwale and Samajwadi Party's Yakub Memon who questioned why the Health Department had not acted on the call for a check by Mayor Hareshwar Patil. Memon wondered why the administration could not permanently cancel the licenses as such serious acts of misconduct was akin to playing with lives. ``It is the same with the vada-pav stalls standing right beside road-side gutters. Do the sanitary inspectors walk that way?'' Memon asked angrily.

Karande refuted allegations of her department not heeding to the Mayor's directive issued almost a few days ago. She said a drive to check sweetmeats hadstarted on August 23.

``The consumption of sweets is high during the festival season, so we carry out a special drive. Our officers can't visit all shops at a time. They go zone by zone, sampling the sweets, and if found to be bad, destroy them, she said when asked how the incident could have occurred when the drive was on.67 shops have been checked so far, while action will be initiated against 44 of them. FDA and BMC officials destroyed 10 kg mava seized from 40 shops, and 15 samples were sent for inspection. Mava weighing 1175 kgs was seized from Sood Cold Storage at Andheri (East) and destroyed, said Karande, adding that these shops probably purchased mava that was stored in large quantities in cold-storage, with a refrigeration life of three months. `` We normally start the drive 15 days before the festival season commences -- August 30. This time we have started it a week in advance,''she said. Generally, officers, accompanied by Food and Drugs Administration officials, visit each shop at least oncein three months.

The civic Public Health Department has issued a press-note requesting people to be cautious while buying and consuming sweets. In case of any doubt regarding quality of sweetmeats purchased, the local medical officer of health in the ward office may be contacted, it added.