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Mr Chauhan pointed out that the show-cause was essentially over the labelling issue of one bottle and `extraneous' factors such as the quality of water.

NEW DELHI, June 19

PARLE Bisleri chief, Mr Ramesh Chauhan, on Wednesday expressed his optimism that the controversy over an out-of-line bottle of Bisleri would be settled soon and the licence to produce would be restored to the company's Delhi plant.

Addressing the media after his meeting Mr S. Bandhopadhyay, Secretary, Consumer Affairs and the Apellate Authority looking into the issue, Mr Chauhan said that the authority had given a time-frame of seven days to resolve the issue. In the meanwhile, a technical audit of Bisleri's Delhi plant would be undertaken.

According to the Bisleri chief, though the restoration of the licence would be pending a clean chit from the technical committee testing the water samples, he was optimistic that this product would clear the audit.

Bisleri had been issued a show-cause notice by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in late-April for a Bisleri bottle of water, sans the mandatory-ISI mark, served on an Alliance Air flight.

Though Bisleri's licence had been cancelled on May 16, following the showcause, he said that his Delhi plant had continued production since the BIS cancellation "was not gazetted, no hearing was given and the evidence was not shown to us".

However, he added, that the plant would now cease production for a few days till the issue was finally settled.

He pointed out that the show-cause was essentially over the labelling issue of one bottle and `extraneous' factors such as the quality of water or the sale of 200 ml cups were being brought into the picture by BIS "as the original grounds were not adequate to cancel a licence".

Unwilling to be drawn into issues of corporate rivalry, Mr Chauhan said that Bisleri had become a house-hold name over the last 35 years because of the quality of its product. "We built Thum's Up and Limca not on poor quality and pricing," he said referring to his immensely popular brands that were subsequently sold to the Coca-Cola stable.

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