Expose comes close on the heels of arresting two BIS scientists
A joint surprise check conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has revealed shocking violations of basic safety parameters in packaged drinking water units in and around Chennai.
A special team comprising CBI investigators and BIS scientists conducted simultaneous checks on the units at random last week and found that the packaged water meant for public consumption did not conform to the prescribed safety standards, agency sources said.
A majority of the 300-odd packaged drinking water plants from where samples were taken up for analysis did not have a laboratory or microbiologist, mandatory for assessing and certifying the quality of the water. In one of the plants located in West Mambalam here, CBI sleuths found water from a dirty overhead tank being manually filtered and packed in sachets and bottles and sold as mineral water, the sources said. “The tank had cockroaches and other insects. We have collected samples from a few plants for chemical analysis. Prima facie violation of basic safety norms was made out during the check in these plants,” a senior investigator told TheHindu on Monday.
Keywords: packaged drinking water
As a consumer, there is no way to know the source of the water. It has been going for long while, and seems to be too late to unearth as the consumption of these water products are in circulation for long and may have caused many heath issues to the public already. There are silent killer, how different is it from illeagal brewing?. Government has to implement regulations and provide license to only esatblished plants with safety standards. Awareness has to be spread among people to consume only the standard licensed water packs. It's a fate that there is little or no direct water supply to the houses, has opened up a unhealy consumption of water from unknown sources. People distributing unhealthy water has to be jailed under criminal Act and same should be followed with food hygiene.
Our own people are in trouble from corruption. Still the poor uneducayed brotherns from rural needs help. But our politicians making loud noice for Srilankans. First save our people from this corrupt officials.
There should also be a regulatory body to check for spurious supplies of the large bottles.
My supplier very often brings spurious bottles and I have to be vigilant. When I
complained to the company itself, I found that senior officials in the company were acting in
collusion with the supplier.
Corruption is the root cause for most of our problems. This is another classic case where the law enforcing authorities take money and let the businesment sell dirty water as mineral water. The corrupt officials fail to realise that their own kith and kin would drink this contaminated water one day and perish. The lure of money blinds our Government officials and all that they can see is money, money and money. Very sad.
The public will welcome such actions.
It is better that poor qulaity companies names are
made public so that we can avoid such company products.
Otherwise after 3 months ,the same companies will come back in business
When bribe taking is allowed in all walks of life, it eventually is
going to come and hurt everybody. You take a bribe and look the other
way, the guy who is responsible for your food supply is also going to do
the same. So, stop taking bribes in all aspects of life..like want a
driving license without knowing how to drive,pay a bribe..and the list
goes on..atleast people should learn from this not to take bribe...
What to trust , whom to trust in this country ? Even drinking water is
not safe ... These ppl should be punished hard that no one else will
think of doing the same .
A free good like water has acquired a price. People have become greedy
and scant respect for law. Today there is a raid. What happens
tomorrow. Everyone forgets and drink the same bottle to quench the
thirst.
Let us learn to fix up small small things around in our society before
bragging ourselves to be super power in 2025 or 2050. Pray Ethics and
alacrity return to the business.
As a first step the CBI should arrest all officials concerned including those from BIS,if any,who had no hesitaion in granting approval to these units who do not even appear to have the basic infrastructure and equipment to manufacture packaged water and who have no QUALMS ABOUT PLAYING WITH PEOPLE"S LIVES for filthy lucre.
Then all the owners and workers should be arrested and proceeded against for attempts to commit Manslaughter at least,if not murder.
Please extend the check in all cities and save the public.
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