Government on Friday cancelled the ISI standard mark licence of the Guwahati unit of Udayak Agro Products who make Parle Bailley brand packaged water.

"Bureau of Indian Standards has slapped the 'stop marking' order on Guwahati-based Udayak Agro Products, owners of the well-known Parle Bailley brand, for its unsatisfactory performance", BIS sources told PTI.

They said the enforcement wing of BIS is being strengthened and the action taken against well-known bottled water companies like Bisleri, PepsiCo (Aquafina), Coca Cola (Kinley) and Ion-Exchange is the result of this initiative.

The licence of 13 plants has already been cancelled under the directive of Consumer Affairs Minister Sharad Yadav and the latest cancellation is due to various discrepancies found in Udayak's plant during BIS inspection.

A number of microbiological tests including that of E Coli, Escherichia Coli bacteria, sulphite-reducing anaerobes were not conducted but entered in the record register.

Hygienic conditions in the plant were not satisfactory; a worker was filling five litres jars without wearing gloves.

Parle Bailley was still to procure certain chemicals for carrying out tests for calcium, magnesium and iron and storage of 'pet' bottles was not satisfactory.

The company needs to avoid spillage of water in the filling room; it was not carrying out test for sulphide and antimony as per standards; values of residual chlorine and antimony were entered in the test register without carrying tests.