Friday, August 19, 2005
Coke bottling plant in Kerala asked to close
Indo-Asian News Service
Thiruvananthapuram, August 19, 2005
The Kerala Pollution Control Board on Friday asked soft drinks major Coca-Cola to close down its bottling plant in Palakkad district immediately.
The board's chairman G Rajmohan said Coke had been asked to shut the plant for failing to comply with pollution regulations.
"They have not yet disclosed the cadmium content in waste generated by the unit. They have not been able to provide drinking water in a satisfying manner to local residents," Rajmohan said.
"They have also not been able to set up a reverse osmosis plant or a similar unit to clean waste generated from their unit."
Coca-Cola had been served a show cause notice in July by the pollution control board and the firm was given a personal hearing too.
"The decision was taken after looking into all issues. I don't know what recourse they have to our closure notice, which is with immediate effect," said Rajmohan, noting that the Palakkad plant had begun limited production after a long gap.
The jolt for Coke came close on the heels of the state government announcing in August that it would appeal to the Supreme Court against a recent high court verdict that refused to review an earlier order asking a village council to permit the Coca-Cola factory to resume production.
A two-member division bench comprising judges N Ramachandran and KP Balachandran rejected the Perumatty village council's demand that the court should have a re-look at its June 1 judgement asking the council to allow the factory to resume operations.
The Coke bottling plant at Plaachimada had shut down almost 16 months ago after being accused of over-using groundwater resources.
The bottling unit had begun operations March 13, 2000 but the local community launched a campaign against the company for over-use of groundwater, the main raw material at the plant.
There are six bore wells and one open well at the plant, whose daily requirement of water is close to 8,00,000 litres. Apart from drawing well water, the plant has a huge rainwater harvesting facility.
Things went bad for the company after a BBC Radio 4 report in September 2003 said lead and cadmium were present in sludge generated at the bottling plant in Palakkad.
Since the plant closed down, there was a 50 per cent drop in the sale of Coca-Cola beverages in Kerala, which at one time was 3,00,000 cases a month.
© HT Media Ltd. 2005.