The Joint Parliamentary Committee set up by the government to look into the issue of high level of pesticide contents in soft drinks is not going to submit its report in a hurry.
Though the government has asked the JPC to submit the report before the winter session of Parliament, it might take longer than just a month to submit its report.
"The report on such a grave issue concerning public health might take longer than even 2-3 months to be complete," a senior JPC member said.
He added there was no way the report would be ready in a month when even the first meeting had not taken place as yet.
The date for the first meeting had not been finalised as yet.
The sources added once a date was decided, a 15-day notice had to be given to all the 15 members of the JPC. "Even if our first meeting takes place in a month, it would be more than enough", said a source.
He added that since most of the members didn't even understand the nitty-gritties of the issue, hearings would have to given to the non-government organisations as well. "This would mean giving another 15-day notice to them," he said.
Also, issues such as whether the European Union (EU) norms have been accepted in totality by India in all the other sectors as well would have to be taken into consideration.
"We will have to consider whether adopting EU norms would be beneficial to India or whether these standards have been formulated for EU's benefit," the member said.
Sources said while the JPC was constituted on August 22, Sharad Pawar, chairman of the JPC, got his appointment letter only on August 30.
The JPC was instituted after the government said the soft drinks were safe as per the Indian standards.
It, however, said pesticide levels in the drinks were higher than those prescribed by the EU. It wont be the first time that a JPC would ask for an extension to submit a final report.
The JPC, that was constituted to look into the stock market scam took about two years to submit its final report.
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