From March 1, traders in Chennai will not sell mineral water brands and popular soft drinks of multinational corporations. They will encourage people to use Indian brands.

As per AM Vikrama Raja, Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangangalin Peramaippu President, the whole of February would be spent on educating consumers and traders about the evils of foreign brands. He further added that these alien brands cause more harm to the body, and one of the company had admitted that it was not suitable for children to consume drinks as it contains certain harmful chemicals.

Mr Vikram Raja stated that association which has 6,000 affiliated member associations and 15.87 lakh members had been fighting Pepsico and Kinley from 1998. They were not able to stop them as there were demands from consumers.

The campaign is being taken forward when during the protest by students demanding conduct of jallikattu, the youngsters sought the ban on these soft drinks as the companies draw out groundwater and mint profits outside the country.

The restaurants and hotels would also be asked not to sell these brands.

The General body meeting of the Peramaippu on Tuesday decided to hold the Annual Meeting in Villupuram on May 5, 2017.

The Milk dealers will also be not selling milk manufactured by the particular MNC.

Recent Ruling

The Madras High Court Bench headed by Justice MV Muralidharan and S Nagamuthu, on November 21, 2016, ordered SIPCOT (State Industrial Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu) to not supply water to Pepsi and Coca-Cola, which draws out several lakh litres of water from Thamirabani river.

This decision was welcomed by farmers and activists of the region who had been fighting a battle with the companies and the government. The argument was when the farmers of the state are bearing the brunt of the shortage of water and poor monsoons every year, then why do these companies have a steady supply of water for cheap and further deplete water from the ecosystem?

The whole contention was framed as “privatisation of water resources”. It was cleared that the actual entity drawing out water was SIPCOT, which belongs to the government.

Read more on why it is important for us to preserve our groundwater resources.