Industry body CII on Thursday welcomed West Bengal government's decision to conduct an independent inquiry for finding pesticide residues in soft drinks.
CII President R Seshasayee expressed satisfaction at the process undertaken by the state government in arriving at a decision with respect to the cola controversy, based on an independent and government-authorised verification conducted on cola samples.
In the overall public interest, the Rule of Law should be considered supreme and other states should also follow a similar approach in this matter, a CII release said.
State Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee earlier on Thursday said that colas would not be banned in West Bengal till the state government received a report on samples sent for testing.
Earlier this month, another Left-ruled state Kerala had banned the production and sale of colas based on a report by an NGO—Centre for Science and Environment—which claimed that 11 products of PepsiCo and Coca Cola contained pesticide residues more than the permissible limit.