All soft drinks and mineral water manufactured by multi-national companies like Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo will disappear from nearly 16 lakh shops across Tamil Nadu from March 1. This was announced by AM Vikramaraja, president of Associations of Tamil Nadu Merchants on Wednesday.
This means that brands like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kinley will disappear from all retail counters in the State from March 1. “We will launch a massive awareness programme from February 1 to educate customers about the ill-effects of the soft drink products manufactured by the MNCs. The end users will be educated about the presence of hazardous chemicals in the soft drinks and mineral water brands manufactured by these companies. We will encourage the customers to switch over to Desi products,” Vikramaraja told reporters at Chennai on Wednesday.
Vikramaraja said the decision was a fallout of the Jallikattu demonstration held all over TN last week. “One of the demands by the protesters was the ban on these soft drink brands as they were drawing water from the State and taking away huge profits,” he said. According to Vikramaraja, one of the MNCs itself came forward recently and announced that its products contained chemicals hazardous for children.
While the soft drink and mineral water bearing the MNC brand would face ban in retail outlets, the products would be available in hotels and restaurants. “We will plead with the hotels and restaurants not to sell these products. The decision of the traders will boost the sales of brands manufactured by local companies,” said Vikramaraja. “It has been found that these locally manufactured soft drinks are safer and better than that of the MNCs,” he added.
But Vellaiyan, president, Tamil Nadu Traders Federation, said all shops owing allegiance to his federation would stop selling these products from Thursday, which happens to be Republic Day.
“This decision is not going to affect the revenue of the traders as the sales of the MNCs constitute hardly 5 per cent of our income. Once the MNC products disappear from the shelves, there will be a surge in the demand for locally manufactured products and this in return will compensate for the fall in revenue,” said Vellaiyan.
Agitation against soft drink manufacturers are gathering momentum in Tamil Nadu. last year an agitation led by EVKS Elangovan, the then TNCC president against drawing Bhavani River water for a MNC’s plant forced the Government to cancel the manufacturing licence issued to the company. There are reports of agitation from Tirunelveli against drawing water from Thamirabharani River by MNCs as the State is facing severe water shortage following the failure of the Monsoon.
For the first time in the recent history of Tamil Nadu, all shops across the State had downed the shutters last Friday to express solidarity with the Jallikattu ban protesters and this seems to have made the traders to take a decision like this.