The national alliance of people's movement and the Rashtriya Yyuva Sangthan have also condemned the punitive clause in the government's order, that calls for imprisonment and a fine for flouting the ban.

A delegation of senior leaders of these association had, last week, submitted a memorandum to President KR Narayan saying that the ban on common salt, to facilitate the compulsory usage of iodised salt, was an insult to the freedom struggle.

Questioning the manner in which the union health and family welfare ministry issued an administrative order advising the state governments to prohibit the sale of common salt for human use, the leaders said the issue had historical and sentimental importance, and so, should have been discussed in parliamnet.

The ban on common salt raises some fundamental issues -- it opens the door for monopoly by MNC's, Thememorandum said.

The country uses 500-600 crore kg of salt every year. While common salt is sold between Rs 1-1.5 per kg, iodised salt ranges in price between Rs 6-12. Thus, a profit of more than Rs 3,000 crore is made in this sector, it said.

The memorandum has also rejected the claim that iodine deficiency could be alleviated only by the use of iodised salt.

Referring to the statistical data issued by the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau, ICMR, Hyderabad, the memorandum said that no state in the country, on an average, was consuming less than the required daily dietary requirement of 150 micrograms of iodine per day.

Even developed countries, which are promoting the use of iodised salt, have not banned common salt. Propogating the use of iodised salt was fine, but banning common salt is `unwanted' and `unwise', the memorandum adds.

The memorandum urged the president to intervene and help lift the ban soon.