Date:06/03/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/03/06/stories/2003030602481300.htm

National

ISI for water-bottling unit withdrawn

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI March 5. Continuing with its nationwide crackdown on the bottled water industry, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has withdrawn the permission to use its ISI mark from one more water-bottling unit.

Disclosing this, senior BIS officials said action has been taken against Varun Aqua of Delhi, as it repeatedly failed microbiological purity tests conducted by an independent agency.

With this, the BIS has withdrawn the permission to use the ISI mark from 12 bottled water units across the country on grounds that they were not meeting quality and norms set by it. The raids began two weeks ago in the wake of a study by a Delhi-based NGO, Centre for Science and Environment, which revealed the presence of high levels of pesticides in bottled drinking water samples collected in Delhi and Mumbai.

Since the ISI certification is mandatory for bottled and packaged drinking water, the withdrawal of permission to use the ISI mark would automatically debar the companies from marketing them. "The raids are continuing and more bottling units would come under the scanner in the coming days," the officials said.