Health Minister Anbumani Ramdoss was grilled in Lok Sabha on Tuesday by members who charged there was 'total confusion' on the issue of pesticides in soft drinks and that there was no clear-cut policy by the government.
In a short notice question, BJP member Uday Singh asked whether government proposed to ban the manufacture and sale of soft drinks in the light of the report of the Centre for Science and Environment which claimed presence of high level of pesticides in soft drinks.
The BJP member said lives of millions of people were at stake.
"Government has no clear-cut policy. We have total confusion," he said, adding states were acting on their own.
Refuting the charge that government was 'dithering', the minister said a high-level committee had been set up to advise on pesticide limits in carbonated beverages, fruits and vegetable juices and other finished products and the monitoring study would be completed by January, 2007.
Complete coverage: Soft drinks, hard truths
This would enable the government to prescribe comprehensive standards for carbonated water after following due process of notification, he said.
Not happy with minister's response, the BJP member said if the CSE report was right, then government should ban manufacture and sale of soft drinks and if it was wrong, certain states which had decided to impose the ban should be told to lift it.
Parasnath Yadav of the Samajwadi Party said the soft drinks industry had suffered immensely while party colleague Ram Prakash Verma accused the government of 'inaction'.
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