Surprise raids conducted on 18 mineral water plants across Andhra

VIJAYAWADA: In view of complaints on few mineral water plants, the Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) officials carried out surprise raids and inspected as many as 18 water plants across the State on Friday.More than 20 teams inspected water plants in NTR district, Srikakulam, Manyam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Dr BR Ambedkar Konaseema, East Godavari, West Godavari, Eluru, Chittoor, Kurnool, Nandyal, YSR Kadapa, Annamaya, Anantapur and Sri Sathya Sai districts. The sleuths found various irregularities such as supplying poor quality drinking water and most of them failed to follow standard operating procedures (SOPs).

“Water plant operators are not conducting testing of groundwater, water parameters, pH and other necessary tests on a daily basis. We also noticed operators does not have labs and lab equipment as per norms in almost all the inspected water plants. Out of 81 inspected, 46 did not obtained necessary BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards Act) certificate and are running under poor hygienic condition,” said the vigilance officials.

The officials also found most of the water plants have not obtained trade licence and requisite certificates from FSSAI, ISI, public health department, ground water and Pollution Control Board. “In addition, we also observed that water is being packed in polythene packets without manufacturing date, price, usage date and batch number. Appropriate action against the mineral water plant owners, who have violated the licensing conditions and doing business without licence will be initiated by the concerned department,” officials added.