The Hindu : Other States / Rajasthan News : Marchers against Coca-Cola court arrest

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Wednesday, Sep 29, 2004

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Marchers against Coca-Cola court arrest

By Our Special Correspondent

KALADERA (RAJASTHAN), SEPT. 28. Hundreds of people courted arrest today in this dusty village, about 40 km from Jaipur, defying the prohibitory orders clamped to prevent them from laying a siege to the bottling plant of the multinational soft drinks giant Coca-Cola. The activist groups had started a protest march from Jaipur accusing Coca-Cola of indiscriminately exploiting ground water reserves in the region.

The long march from the State Capital, which began on Saturday last, arrived in Kaladera this morning with the demand for permanent closure of the Coca-Cola factory. Social activists, civil rights workers and the concerned villagers organised a huge public meeting before marching towards the plant site.

When a large police force stopped the marchers at the road leading to the Kaladera industrial area in view of prohibitory orders imposed since Sunday, they raised slogans against Coca-Cola and courted arrest. Three busloads of people were taken to the Chomu police station and later released.

Prominent among those who courted arrest were 96-year-old Sarvodaya leader, Siddharaj Dhaddha, noted social activist and Magsaysay Award winner, Aruna Roy, and Arya Samaj leader, Satyavrat Samvedi.

The march covered the distance between Jaipur and Kaladera in three days and had the stopovers in the villages on the way, where the participants held demonstrations and organised public meetings and street plays. The Jan Sangharsh Samiti, spearheading the agitation, had planned to organise a massive demonstration in front of the Coca-Cola unit today.

There was palpable tension in the village since this morning even before the march arrived and a large number of Coca-Cola factory employees assembled at the village's entry point, College Corner, holding placards in their hands opposing the march and disputing the activists' claim regarding decline in the water table.

"There is no evidence to suggest that the Coca-Cola plant is responsible for the reduction of water table. On the contrary, the Government's data indicate that the decline is the minimum in Kaladera in comparison with the nearby areas such as Chomu,'' Sunil Sharma, representing the Coca-Cola management, told The Hindu .

Police and the Rajasthan Armed Constabulary (RAC) personnel were deployed in large numbers at the vantage points in the village to avert any clash between the Coca-Cola staff and the marchers as well as to stop the latter from marching towards the plant site. The ground near the Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya was kept out of prohibitory orders to enable the marchers to organise the meeting.

The battle against Coca-Cola in remote Plachimada in Kerala had its reverberations in the public meeting with two activists from the southern State, P. Kannadas and G. Ramadas, coming all the way to join the march. They apprised the local villagers of the mass agitations in Kerala that had led to a prolonged litigation and closure of the plant in Plachimada.

Both Mr. Dhaddha and Ms. Roy alerted the villagers to the crisis facing the country, saying that the multinational companies were eying India's huge population for earning profits. "This Coca-Cola factory is only the tip of an iceberg. There is a deeper conspiracy to exploit our natural resources and it cannot be fought unless we remove contradictions in our policies,'' Ms. Roy said.

The Coca-Cola factory in the Kaladera industrial area was set up in 1999 as part of the State Government's drive to attract foreign investment. Contrary to claims by the multinational giant that the plant is not responsible for the decline in the water table, the local populace claim that about 50 villages in Chomu and Amber tehsils have been facing severe water crisis mainly because of the factory draining out ground water.

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Marchers against Coca-Cola court arrest