Cola row: JPC meet on Tuesday

The first meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on pesticide residues in safety standards for soft drinks, fruit juices and other beverages will be held on Tuesday.

According to official sources, Director General of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research R A Mashelkar would also give his views on the subject.

Also Read Cola Row: Complete Coverage

The 15-member Joint Parliamentary Committee, headed by NCP leader Sharad Pawar, was set up last month to probe the report of the Delhi-based NGO, Centre for Science and Environment, which had alleged presence of high percentage of pesticide residues in Coca Cola, Pepsi and ten other soft drink brands.

The committee has been asked to suggest criteria for evolving suitable safety standards for soft drinks, fruit juices and other beverages where water is the main constituent.

The committee would submit its report to the House by the beginning of the next session of Parliament.

While their will be ten Lok Sabha members in the JPC, including Pawar, five members will be from Rajya Sabha.

Besides Pawar, Lok Sabha members are: Ananth Kumar and Sudha Yadav (BJP), Rajesh Chennithala and Avtar Singh Bhadana (Congress), K Yerranaidu (TDP), E Ahmed (ML), Ranjit Kumar Panja (Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Anil Basu (CPI-M).

Rajya Sabha members are: S S Ahluwalia (BJP), Prithviraj Chauhan (Congress), Sanjay Nirupam (Shiv Sena), Prem Chand Gupta (RJD) and Prasanta Chatterjee (CPI-M).