Chandigarh: Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) youth wing members sprayed colas on agricultural fields in a Punjab village Monday to 'prove' that farmers could well use soft drinks instead of actual pesticides to get better harvest.
Led by the state's youth BJP leader Vineet Joshi, the members sprayed soft drinks of various brands on standing crops.
Joshi said that the exercise was carried out to make the state government come out of its slumber and act over the presence of pesticides in soft drinks recently highlighted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
He demanded that the government completely ban pesticide-laden soft drinks and put in place stringent standards to ensure that consumers were not served products containing pesticides.
Seventy-three samples of soft drinks collected by the state health department should be tested independently for the pesticide content, Joshi said.
"We must have zero tolerance against these big cola giants," he said.
Joshi said that the statement made by state Health Minister Surinder Singla questioning the CSE findings reflected the mood of the ruling establishment in Punjab to save the soft drink companies.
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