States ready to make BIS standard must for piped drinking water, says Paswan HC declines to order linking of FB, Twitter, Whatsapp accounts with Aadhaar, PAN
NEW DELHI: The state governments are in agreement for making the BIS standards ‘mandatory’ for piped drinking water to ensure safe and quality water to people, Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Monday.
At present, BIS standards on piped drinking water are voluntary in nature. The Centre is considering making it mandatory and the nodal consumer affairs ministry has written to the Jal Shakti ministry in this regard.
The proposal comes amid tests conducted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) on drinking water, which found water quality in Mumbai as per standard but poor in many state capitals, including Delhi.
“We discussed in detail with state governments. They said they follow the BIS standards and even Delhi Jal Board (DJB) said it follows BIS standards . .... After the discussion, there was a view to make the BIS standards mandatory. DJB said they don’t have any issue on this,” Paswan told reporters.
He was addressing the media after a day-long workshop organised to sensitise state government officials about the requirement of BIS standards for drinking water.
Barring three-four states including Uttar Pradesh, Paswan said there was representation from most state governments and union territories in the workshop.
“Everyone’s view was that BIS standards on piped drinking water was good and everyone should follow it,” he said, adding that authorities in every state should take samples and test them if they adhere to BIS standards or not.
BIS is the national standard body established under the BIS Act 2016 for harmonious development of the activities of standardisation, marking and quality certification of goods.
About the quality of drinking water in Delhi, the minister said it was told that the source of water needs to be checked before it is released to the treatment plant for further supply to households.
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Monday declined to order linking of social media accounts with Aadhaar, PAN or voter ID card for weeding out fake accounts, saying it would lead to data of genuine account holders, who are much more in number, going “unnecessarily” to foreign countries.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar said linking of accounts with social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp, with Aadhaar, PAN or any other identity document requires framing of policies or amendment in existing laws by the central government and this exercise cannot be done by the court. “Role of courts is to interpret the law as it is. We are not concerned with what the
law ought to be,” it said, adding that in exceptional cases where there is a gap in the law, the courts can step in.
It said that in the instant case, linking of social media accounts with identity data
like Aadhaar or PAN was a “crucial matter” which has to be appreciated by the central government and it cannot be treated as a “gap” which needs to be plugged by the court as it “would have far reaching consequences regarding data of genuine account holders”.
The bench said it was not inclined to issue any direction to the government as it is already deliberating on the Law Commission reports on the issue and disposed of the PIL seeking directions to the Centre to take steps for linking social media accounts with Aadhaar, PAN or voter ID card to weed out fake accounts.
It however told the government to keep in mind that identity data of genuine account holders was also at stake and a “proper balance” has to be struck by it while taking a decision on the issue.