Ranchi, Aug 23: External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha today said the controversy surrounding the alleged high level of pesticides in soft drinks would clear after the Joint Parliamentary Committee set up to examine it submitted its report. Annoyed with a question that the government on Thursday gave up the thumbs up to cola majors following foreign pressure, Sinha shot back "How can we accept foreign pressure? ...We have our own labs for testing." Asserting that there was no pressure from any side, he said "JPC's report se doodh ka doodh panika pani ho jaega. (everything will be clear after the JPC report)." Yesterday, a 15-member joint parliamentary committee was constituted to find out whether the recent findings of Delhi-based NGO Centre of science and environment on pesticide residues in Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola and ten other soft drink brands were correct or not.
Sinha was here in connection with a function and left for Hazaribag to oversee a rupees fifteen crore mega sports project there. Bureau Report