New Delhi, Sep 23 (IANS): Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Wednesday asked the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to upgrade its laboratories across the country on priority basis.

The minister, presiding over a meeting of the governing body of BIS here, also directed the organisation to arrange facilities for testing more products.

"Labs of the Bureau in each state should be upgraded on priority basis and facilities for testing of more products should be arranged," Paswan said after reviewing the performance of the BIS.

In addition, the minister ordered the BIS to develop or revise standards regarding street food and products used in daily life. "Mass awareness campaign should also be launched to make people quality conscious," he said.

Paswan underlined the importance of transparency in licensing of standards, and directed the BIS to encourage industry to adopt self declaration scheme for adopting standards.

Paswan was informed that 250 products have already been notified by the BIS for this purpose.

He directed the BIS to complete computerisation of its work by March 2016 to make all its functions and processes IT-enabled.

The national standards organisation informed the minister that it has taken up development of standards for 43 products identified by the department of industrial policy and promotion for manufacturing quality products in the country under 'Make in India' programme.

It has also decided to develop or upgrade standards for basic consumer services like potable water and waste collection and disposal besides revising the National Building Code to promote safe and environment friendly construction in the country.