Tamil Nadu Traders Not to Sell Pepsi, Coca-Cola from March 1

CHENNAI:
The Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangangalin Peramaipu, or the Tamil Nadu traders’ association, on Tuesday said that it has decided to stop the sale of soft drinks of multinational companies including Coca-Cola and Pepsi brands from 1 March.
The move comes in the wake of the week-long protests across the state over Jallikattu, or the traditional bull-taming sport, which became a discussion forum for people to debate on how to take this movement forward to address various other issues. The demand to ban Pepsi and Coca Cola products was prevalent in most of these protests.
Last week, R. Guna, a student from Coimbatore who took part in the protests, said, “We should ban soft drinks like Pepsi and Coke, as they exploit our water resources.”
The traders’ association has decided to spend February in educating traders and consumers about the ‘evils of these brands’.
Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangangalin Peramaipu president A.M. Vikramaraja said, “The decision to stop selling these multi-national brands has been made with the approval of the 6,000 affiliated member associations.”
Over 15 lakh members, who are part of the association will stop the sale of soft drinks of multinational companies and have decided to promote local beverages.
Last week, some of the leading hotel chains in Coimbatore and Chennai agreed not to sell Coca Cola and Pepsi considering that the “multinational companies have caused a huge water scarcity and health issues among the citizens’.