Jayalalithaa's 'Amma' Mineral Water faces Election Commission embargo

MADURAI: The Election Commission's order to remove the two leaves symbol and image of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on ' Amma' mineral water bottles has resulted in a 50 per cent drop in sales, officials said.

The drop was noticeable in Tiruchirapalli and Madurai and officials suggested that government should use the label " Tamil Nadu Government Logo" to boost sales.

Officials said people suspect the genuinness of the quality of water without the label, Tourists from other states, who were buying these bottles earlier, are also suspicious about the quality as they do not contain the label,they said.

Initially, water bottles with the Amma logo and picture sold like hot cakes and sale of mineral water by private companies dropped heavily, an official said.

"However, now sale of mineral water by private companies had gone up," said Veeran Pillai, a stall owner in Madurai.

A salesman in Tiruchirapalli district said though sale of Amma mineral water was good,it was not enough even to maintain the cost of running the stall.

A transport department official said despite enough stocks, sales were not up to the mark due to removal of logos and picture. But he was confident the dip was only for a brief period and it would pick up later.