New Delhi, Mar 04: Tightening the noose on errant bottled and packaged drinking water companies, Government yesterday cancelled ISI quality licences of two more units including that of Bisleri International, Noida. This takes the number of plants facing such action to 11 in less than a month as earlier inspections by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) had led to action against eight plants including one each of PepsiCo, Bisleri and Ion-Exchange while a unit of Coca Cola was let off with a warning. "ISI quality mark has been withdrawn from the bottled water plant of Bisleri International, Noida and Sri Agencies, Secunderabad after inspection revealed their samples are not up to the existing standards," BIS sources said. Licence withdrawal or cancellation of a unit automatically debars it from manufacturing bottled water since ISI Standard Mark is mandatory under Government rules.

This is the second Bisleri licence to be withdrawn after similar action against its Bangalore plant last month.

Action is part of an ongoing nationwide exercise under the directive of Consumer Affairs Minister Sharad Yadav and would continue in the coming days, they said adding more licence cancellations are in the offing. BIS sources said far from adhering to the proposed revised quality norms, a number of bottled water plants are unable to meet even the existing BIS standards forcing the Bureau to take stringent action against them.

Yadav has asserted in Parliament that Government is determined to ensure fullest long term protection to public health.

Bureau Report