Jayalalithaa to launch scheme to provide mineral water at Rs 10

CHENNAI: In yet another pro-people welfare measure, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa will launch a scheme tomorrow to provide mineral water for Rs ten a litre.

The Chief Minister will inaugurate the "Amma Drinking Water" plant at Gummidipoondy in nearby Tiruvallur district, the government said today.

"Amma Drinking Water will be sold in all long-distance government buses and bus stands in Chennai and other districts," it said.

The launch coincides with the 105th birth anniversary of Dravidian veteran, the late Chief Minister CN Annadurai.

Jayalalithaa had announced the project in June this year to ensure quality and affordable drinking water to the poor and middle class.

She had said production units will be established by state transport corporations which would make available one litre of mineral water packed in bottles at Rs 10 each, ensuring safe water and reducing to some extent the financial burden of the people.

She said the transport corporations would sell a litre of bottled water at Rs 10

This was against Rs 15 charged by the Railways and Rs 20 by private players for bottled water.

Nine more water production units would be established across the state, she had said then.

The mineral water initiative is one of the many pro-poor measures taken by the AIADMK government to provide relief to the people reeling under the spiralling price rise.

'Amma canteens' that serve breakfast, lunch and dinner at subsidised rates and vending outlets selling vegetables at subsidised prices are some pro-people welfare measures already launched by the government.

The government is already providing rice free to ration card holders.

The water will be available in a plastic bottle with the engraved word "Amma" (Mother in Tamil).