Mandal convener Jayant Lapsiwala told Express Newsline, that they began the drive on Gandhi Jayanti because Gandhiji himself was against commercialisation of a basic requirement like salt. Claiming that even Union Textile Minister Kashiram Rana, Mayor Savita Sharda and other Surat Municipal Corporation officials bought salt from them on October 2, he said the drive was gaining momentum and support.

Stating that the organisation had also been distributing leaflets and pamphlets opposing the notification that makes use of iodised salt compulsory, Lapsiwala contended that the notification as well as allowing multinationals to produce salt was ``looting the commoner on daylight.''

Pointing out that people lived upto a hundred years in the past when there was no concept of iodised salt, he said the government was making a fuss over the issue. He said besides selling salt packets in city areas, the Mandal also distributed non-iodised salt, besides other necessary items, to flood-affected people in the past week.

The Mandal, he reiterated, had vowed to fight against the mandatory use of iodised salt and was pursuing it as a one-point strategy.