More than 1,100 sweet sellers of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, who took part in the meeting organised by the Punjab Halwai Association on Wednesday, have blamed MNCs for the losses suffered by them during Diwali.

Huge quantities of sweets were seized before the festival as they failed to pass tests conducted by the health department. Ramesh Mittal, owner of Lovely Sweets, Jalandhar, and chairman of the association, said, “MNCs passed on wrong information to the state governments. They wanted to increase the sale of their gift packs of chocolates and juices etc, and we had to suffer losses.”

The members of the association said they will observe black Diwali next year if this continues.

Narinderpal Singh, president of this association said, “No chemicals have been found in the samples collected by the health department. Only some discrepancies have been found like less fat. The samples have failed in the areas where the water supply by the municipal corporation is poor, which has contributed to the results.”

“Thousands of tonnes of sweets is lying in the godowns, the reports of which are still awaited. They have not been returned and are of no use to us now,” said Mittal.

However, huge stocks have not been claimed till date which has raised questions on their quality.

The members have asked that in future the health department should release the sample reports early and not “defame” them unless the samples fail the test.

Singh said, “Of the total stock, only 28 per cent have failed tests but all the halwais had to suffer.”