mumbai alarmed by the recent centre for science and environmentcse report which indicated presence of pesticides in 12 major brands of colas sold in delhi the state food and drug administration fda has decided to undertake a project to test samples from water sources used by cola and bottled water manufacturers incidentally the fda tested samples across the state in december last year in the government testing laboratory in pune none of these samples had pesticides but after the cse report we are planning to undertake further tests says uttam khobragade fda commissioner with reports of toxins in milk adulteration of bottled water and now pesticides in colas rocking the city what should the consumers drink after all city ngos have come out with their own unique strategy to fight the aggressive marketing of cola giants citybased consumer organisations mumbai grahak panchayat has asked state government to give tax concessions and space to promote the canning industry the mgp women members were recently trained by the central food canning personnel to extract orange fresh lime sweet lime juices and bottle them we are approaching hotels to promote sugarcane juices and coconut water mgp activists are asking top caterers in the city to encourage fruit juice as a welcome drink at weddings states anuradha deshpande mgp member who is leading the campaignthe activists are also planning to introduce the ads promoting these fresh drinks in school book covers it is difficult for ngos to fight the strong advertisement impact which these colas have especially when they see top stars like aamir khan and sachin tendulkar promoting them adds deshpande the ngo is also negotiating with several udipi joints to place coconut water on their menu these vendors coming from south india have to pay heavy price on transport octroi and are further harassed by local goondas on the street small restaurants can easily accommodate them says deshpandethe cola controversy has also opened a debate on the methodology of testing joint testing by the mncs and ngos can solve this deadlock samples without labels should be offered to experts with integrity for authentic report says noted testing expert dr a r shenoy