Government bodies today told the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing into pesticide residues in beverages that they are not authorised to test ground water quality but are there only to monitor its quantity. Today’s presentations made before the JPC included that of Central Ground Water Board, Ground Water Authority and the secretary, Water Resources. ‘‘All of them said the same thing — that they have no mandate to check ground water quality as water is a state subject. This, despite the fact that there are as many as 15,000 monitoring stations for ground water,’’ said a JPC member. The Centre expressed its inability to check ground water quality citing multiplicity of agencies handling water issues. Coca Cola India has been asked to depose on December 3 following company CEO Sanjiv Gupta’s request to JPC chairman Sharad Pawar to hear him out. The Committee hasn’t yet received any such request from Pepsico. The JPC is also scheduled to visit Coca Cola’s Kerala plant which bottles all of its brands including Coca Cola, Fanta, Limca, Maaza and Thums Up. The plant, situated in Palghat district, caters to markets across Kerala and the border of Tamil Nadu. The Committee will continue its meeting tomorrow, after which it will meet only in December as elections will keep the members busy during November. Among the depositions expected before the JPC tomorrow are those of Parle chief Ramesh Chauhan under the aegis of Indian Bottled Water Association, the Food Processing Association and the Pollution Control Board.
