Oct. 24: The drive to clean up the city with disinfectants after the recent floods ended up in the pit after tests revealed that sub-standard bleaching powder was procured for the purpose.

A state public health department report stated that bleaching powder bought by several non-governmental organisations (NGO) and state government agencies from city-based bleaching powder manufacturing units were of inferior quality.

The NGOs and other agencies procured the disinfecting powder for distribution among the people in flood-affected areas of the state.

The report was prepared on the basis of tests conducted in the state public health laboratory on four most popular brands of bleaching powder available in the market.

It said the active ingredients, mainly chlorine that acts as a disinfecting substance, was much below the requisite level in most brands of bleaching powder. The mandatory level was 25 per cent, but the tests revealed it was only five to 10 per cent in four popular brands available in the market.

Analyst . Das said the poor quality of the products came to the light when the city-based NGO, Action Aids, brought samples of several popular brands for testing in the laboratory before distribution in the flood-affected areas.

Among the four brands, two were manufactured by the Pandu-based Sanchita Traders, while the remaining others were produced by the P.D. Associates and Dispur-based Hanuman Marketing.

?The NGO had procured 2,000 packets of the powder, but when we carried the test it was found that the powders contained only lime and hardly any chlorine,? he said.

The absence of proportionate amount of chlorine would hardly help disinfect water or sensitise affected areas, Das said.

Bleaching powder is widely used as a water purifier in flood-affected areas to prevent spread of water-borne diseases.

The sub-standard disinfectant raised a question mark on the quality of products available in the market.

Das said a public analyst could not make any suo moto test, but the onus lay on the district administration and government agencies to check the quality of products.

Stressing the need to properly monitor the quality of products, he said: ?We test any product brought to us by government agencies, NGOs or even by an individual.?