Packaged drinking water units across the State have launched an indefinite strike from Thursday evening, demanding that the State government provide no-objection certificates to operate and relax norms for groundwater drawal based on the zones.

This follows a directive from the Madras High Court to district collectors to file reports on shutting down of unlicensed packaged drinking water units by March 3.

Members of the Greater Tamil Nadu Packaged Drinking Water Manufacturers’ Association said that the 1,612 units across the State were functioning with licences from the Bureau of India Standards and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. However, only about 600 units had been provided with NOC by the Water Resources Department for operation.

The founder of the association, A. Shakespeare, said, “We are prepared to get an NOC from the government. We only draw a minimal quantity of water when compared to the industries. The State government must consider providing NOCs to all existing units and regulate groundwater drawal depending on the critical and overexploited areas. Groundwater drawal can be permitted from a minimum of 30,000 litres a day.”

On average, 25 crore litres of packaged drinking water is sold in the State. Of this, nearly 2.5 crore litres are sold in and around Chennai.