The water-packaging units case in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) extended its reach to other parts of Tamil Nadu on Monday with the bench asking the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to check the total number of such units in the state and verify as to how many do not have necessary consent, including those from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
The southern bench comprising of Judicial Member Justice M Chockalingam and Expert Member R Nagendran asked the TNPCB to file a report in this regard before the next hearing in July.
This direction was issued following contentions by the Tamil Nadu Packaged Drinking Water Manufacturers’ Association, which said that many units even without BIS certification were functioning in the State. It was these units that sold unsafe water and caused damage to the reputation of the entire industry. Meanwhile, during the proceedings on Monday, the TNPCB submitted the correlated analysis report of the samples drawn from units the functioned without consent in and around Chennai. Counsel for TNPCB, S Saravanan, submitted that of the 92 units without consent, samples of 85 were tested. The remaining seven could not be accessed as the units were locked when the officials visited them.
The report said 34 of the 85 samples confirmed to the standards. Among the remaining 51, seventeen were below standard but not unsafe for consumption. But the rest of the 34 units produced water that was unsafe. “In fact, eight among the 34 contained aerobic microbial contamination and are a health hazard,” said the counsel.
In the meantime, the counsel for the association said that some of the units showed below-standard readings as the process of obtaining samples itself was flawed.
“The plants should have been let to run for at least 24 hours before drawing samples. If this is not done, they will certainly show higher readings,” he contended.
Passing orders, the bench allowed the 51 units which were found to produce safe water to function. Given the contention of the association, the bench asked the TNPCB, and the Commissioner of Food Inspection and Drug Administration, to collect fresh samples from the remaining 34 units after giving “sufficient time” for the processing and do the analysis once more.