Soft drinks and cigarettes will cost more in Punjab effective April 1, with the state government hiking the Value Added Tax (VAT) in the Rs 460.21 crore deficit budget presented in the state assembly here today.

Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa presented the budget for 2013-14 even as the opposition Congress members abstained from the House for the sixth successive day, holding a "mock session" outside the Assembly complex to protest suspension of their nine members last week.

Coca-Cola became one of the world's most powerful brands by equating its soft drinks with happiness. Now, for the first time, it's addressing a growing cloud over the industry: obesity. The US-based company on Monday will begin airing a twominute ad during the highestrated shows on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC in hopes of becoming a stronger voice in the debate over sodas and their impact on public health. The ad lays out Coca-Cola's record of providing drinks with fewer calories over the years and notes that weight gain is the result of consuming too many calories of any kind — not just soda.

A plea to the district authorities to check over exploitation of ground water by a bottling plant at Suriyur in Tiruverumbur union on the outskirts was made at the district panchayat council meeting on Thursday.

Raising the issue at the council meeting, chaired by T.Rajathi, chairperson, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member Chithravel alleged that though the unit was said to be only a bottling plant, it was tapping ground water heavily using six borewells for manufacture of soft drinks.

It might be a good idea to talk to consumers when a crisis blows up

Complaints of overexploitation of groundwater

The Assembly Committee on Environment, which visited the bottling plant of PepsiCo at Kanjikode on Tuesday, directed the Groundwater Department to monitor and restrict strictly the use of groundwater by the company. The committee, on complaints from various organisations that the soft-drink giant was overexploiting groundwater, asked the department to examine if the company was tapping groundwater in excess of the permitted quantity. The complaints said the overexploitation was lowering the water table, affecting the drinking water sources of the local people.