When NGO Consumer Voice revealed in 2010 that vegetables and fruits that Delhiites eat everyday are extremely toxic, with chemical content that could cause serious health problems, the Delhi High Court of its own told the state government to check the situation.The government literally watered down the report, telling the court that the food was perfectly safe and that the NGO's figures were hugely exaggerated.Now, in a stinging and embarrassing no-trust vote against the Delhi government, the Delhi High Court has told the government to conduct toxicity tests over again. Not just that, it has also asked a court-appointed expert committee as well as an amicus curiae (assistant to the court) for a much larger sample to be tested and also a checklist of preventive measures.The court's order came on November 6, the last date of hearing in the matter. The order followed a submission by the Delhi government earlier this week stating that the pesticide content present in fruits and vegetables being sold in the Capital was within permissible limits and that they were not harmful.Consumer Voice found that pesticides such as chlordane, endrin and heptachlor (which can cause serious neurological problems, kidney damage and skin diseases) were rampantly being used in fruits and vegetables supplied across Delhi. The chemicals are used as ripening and colouring agents.It also said that poisons found on the vegetables and fruits had the lethal potential to cause cancer. The NGO found several banned pesticides as well and the level of some of the pesticides were 750 times that of European standards.The court's own panel of experts had told the HC that it had visited markets in Kotla, Mayur Vihar, Sarojini Nagar, INA, Defence Colony, Vasant Vihar and Lodhi Estate and found pesticides, toxic colours and hormones present in the samples it had checked. The court had ordered an inspection of fruits and vegetables for pesticides content while hearing a PIL on May 29.When the government went back to court, its reply said that the amount of pesticides consumed through fruits and vegetables in India was a fraction of that in America and Europe. This, it claimed, had been deduced by several sample surveys carried out by its lab. It also submitted that the Food and Supply department picked up 88 samples since January this year and the report on 70 items suggests that the pesticide content in them was less."The quantity of pesticides in these samples is under the consumable limits and did not pose any health-related threat," it said. In addition to this, the government also submitted a report by the Agricultural Marketing department on 1,513 samples of fruits and vegetables containing pesticides within the "prescribed range".Sri Ram Khanna of Consumer Voice told MAIL TODAY that "major pesticide manufacturers have started discrediting our finding that pesticide residuals are high in content present in the vegetables and fruits and it also appears that the government's effort to whitewash our fight showing that there is indeed alarming presence". He also claimed that the NGO was threatened with a `25 crore legal notice, asking it to withdraw stories about pesticides from the media.But the high court seemed to agree with the NGO about the government's attempt to underplay the extent of pesticides and toxins in the fruits and vegetables and junked the state's plea. The court said "?We find these pleadings surprising because the material brought on record before us shows a picture which is far from what is painted in the affidavit. Impermissible pesticides have been found in the vegetables in the national capital territory."The court directed the government to pull up their act, test more samples and come up with definite ways to curb the use of harmful pesticides by February 5, 2014, the next date of hearing.