Govt to reject Coca Cola’s Mehdiganj expansion plan
25 Aug 2014 4:46 AM IST
The sources in the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) said: ‘Coca-Cola’s application to expand will be rejected by the authority on 25 August before the National Green Tribunal, where the company had appealed for the closure of its current bottling plant.’
According to the CGWA sources: ‘The decision to axe Coca-Cola’s proposal was taken considering the depleting groundwater conditions in the area. The groundwater level has worsened from ‘safe’ to ‘critical’ category in June, 2009. The company had started its operations in 1999 in Varanasi, which is now the Lok Sabha constituency of prime minister Narendra Modi.
The Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (HCCBPL), a subsidiary of Atlanta, US based Coca-Cola Company, had applied in 2012 to the CGWA and the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), to expand its groundwater allowance in Mehdiganj five-fold – from 50,000 cubic metres to 250,000 cubic meters annually.
Anticipating that its application for expansion would be rejected, and in order to save face, the soft drink firm has written a letter to the chief secretary of the state and the UPPCB last week stating that it was ‘not to pursue the expansion’ of the plant, sources said.
The company has cited ‘inordinate delay’ which has caused ‘financial losses’ as the main reason for no longer pursuing the expansion plans in Mehdiganj. In contrary to this, Kamlesh Sharma, director, public affairs and communication of Coca-Cola, has denied the reports of ‘rejection’.
Sharma said: ‘The reports about rejection of the proposal are ‘fictional’. Our plant continues to operate in Varanasi and we will continue with our planned expansion in the state of UP.’
While talking to Millennium Post, Amit Srivastava of India Resource Centre said: ‘We expected the government to reject Coca-Cola’s expansion plans because all the research and documents that we had provided confirmed that it would worsen the groundwater situation in the area.’ The IRC had led the opposition to Coca-Cola’s expansion plans in Mehdiganj.
According to the CGWA sources: ‘The decision to axe Coca-Cola’s proposal was taken considering the depleting groundwater conditions in the area. The groundwater level has worsened from ‘safe’ to ‘critical’ category in June, 2009. The company had started its operations in 1999 in Varanasi, which is now the Lok Sabha constituency of prime minister Narendra Modi.
The Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (HCCBPL), a subsidiary of Atlanta, US based Coca-Cola Company, had applied in 2012 to the CGWA and the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), to expand its groundwater allowance in Mehdiganj five-fold – from 50,000 cubic metres to 250,000 cubic meters annually.
Anticipating that its application for expansion would be rejected, and in order to save face, the soft drink firm has written a letter to the chief secretary of the state and the UPPCB last week stating that it was ‘not to pursue the expansion’ of the plant, sources said.
The company has cited ‘inordinate delay’ which has caused ‘financial losses’ as the main reason for no longer pursuing the expansion plans in Mehdiganj. In contrary to this, Kamlesh Sharma, director, public affairs and communication of Coca-Cola, has denied the reports of ‘rejection’.
Sharma said: ‘The reports about rejection of the proposal are ‘fictional’. Our plant continues to operate in Varanasi and we will continue with our planned expansion in the state of UP.’
While talking to Millennium Post, Amit Srivastava of India Resource Centre said: ‘We expected the government to reject Coca-Cola’s expansion plans because all the research and documents that we had provided confirmed that it would worsen the groundwater situation in the area.’ The IRC had led the opposition to Coca-Cola’s expansion plans in Mehdiganj.
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