Pune: License Of 4 Water Bottle Manufacturer Suspended For Threatening BIS Official

Pune, 18th March 2021: The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the National Standards Body, working under the aegis of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs Food and Public Distribution Govt. of India, mandated to work for creating a robust quality ecosystem in the country. It operates about 37000 product licences across the country through its 32 Branch offices and is duty-bound to carry out factory and market surveillance to enforce compliance.

Bureau of Indian Standards regularly draws market samples to check the conformity of the same with relevant Indian Standard. As such, Pune Branch Office had drawn, among others, market samples of packaged drinking water as per the instructions received from the New Delhi Head office.

According to BIS, some members of Maharashtra Bottled Water Manufacturers Association visited the Bureau of Indian Standards, Pune branch office, situated at Market Yard, Pune, on 3rd March 2021 under the pretext of meeting the Head, BIS, Pune office. Immediately after meeting the Head in his cabin, they picked up the altercation, abused officers and started arguing why market samples of packaged drinking water were drawn? They were informed that the samples were drawn as per the instructions of the Head office and as per terms and conditions of the operation of the BIS Certification Mark Licence Scheme.

“They were not in a mood to listen and a few of them misbehaved and threatened BIS officers to cause physical harm if market samples are continued to be drawn. They also damaged some of the market samples of packaged drinking water under the custody of BIS, Pune office.

As their behaviour amounted to obstructing officers from discharging duties, BIS has taken action against the miscreant for violation of BIS Act,2016 and suspended their BIS licences, i.e., Shivanjali Aqua, Savvy Pure Aqua Pvt. Ltd., Savvy Pure Aqua, Unit-2 and Ravi Foods and Beverages and also issued notices for cancellation of their licences”, BIS stated in a press release.