kanpur even after several complaints to the district administration contaminated drinking water packed in polybags is being sold openly in city markets worse is that majority of water selling vendors are selling this contaminated water outside city schools and hospitals and food and drug departments are doing nothing to curb this illegal trade bizarre it may sound but many of the water pouches are being sold beholding the names of various brands but do not have manufacturing dates and batch number on them majority of the openly sold water pouches claiming on its cover to be best before 30 days from the date of packing are being stocked from local handpumps or road side taps its important to mention here that toi brought this matter of contaminated water being sold openly in city streets to the knowledge of district administration who claimed to check this malpractice soon but if the local vendors and citizens are to be believed no initiative has been taken by any administrative of food and drug department authority to stop this illegal conduct the fda people come once in a blue moon and ask us to close the shop they never asked for our license nor ever checked the purity of the water in the water trolleys the inspector do not even care to bring the relevant instruments with them we shift for a day or two and again start selling water at same place said ramesh a water vendor at badachauraha munna another water seller in parade market said that he had never come across any fda or administrative official in the past seven months as he is selling water on street from past seven months he also candidly admits that he and his fellow vendors fill these polypacked water pouches from local tap water and with hand pumps he said they have no choice as other water sources are far away even they buy ice from the local ice vendor of the area without checking the purity of it these local ice vendors keep the ice bars on shabby sacks to store them for long while many of them use the same ice blocks which are used to preserve and package leather meat and fish as they cost them at lower prices also many of these street vendors stand nearby open drains and dustbins kept by kanpur nagar nigam so that they can throw the waste easily its shocking that even the educated people throng such shops without even thinking of their health i came across several pouches which were muddy and stinking from a vendor outside ahmdufferin hospital these vendors were selling the water at cost of one rupee which is cheap and affordable for poor people coming to this hospital said namita verma a social worker talking to toi dr ak nigam chief medical superintendent of uhm hospital said every year theres a spurt in cases of waterborne diseases in summers we know the reason is poor quality of water and the