Tamil Nadu - Tirunelveli   

`Conduct public hearing on soft drink unit'

Staff Reporter

To elicit opinion of villagers around Gangaikondan

TIRUNELVELI: The Tamil Nadu Science Forum has urged the State Government to conduct a public hearing to elicit opinion of the villagers around Gangaikondan and others on the upcoming soft drink plant at Gangaikondan SIPCOT Industrial Estate.

Speaking to reporters here on Saturday after a meeting of the sub-committee on Land, Water and Agriculture of TSF, the president, R. Dhakshinamurthy, the president, Centre for Ecology and Rural Development, Pondicherry, T.P. Raghunath, and the State executive committee member of TSF, V. Sukumar, said the Government had "failed to conduct public hearings" to know the opinion of the community about its decision to give licence to South India Bottling Company Limited to manufacture beverages being marketed by Coca Cola.

"As this water-intensive unit would have adverse impact on the groundwater table and the Tamiraparani as well, it is imperative to know the views of the public on this project," they said.

Effective awareness campaigns would be conducted in the 26 villages around Gangaikondan through plays and other forms of art with the theme that water, a right of every individual, could not be privatised.

Meanwhile, the Joint Action Group for Tamiraparani and Ground Water Conservation' has planned to take a second batch of villagers around Gangaikondan to Plaachimada "in a bid to tell them about the impacts of soft drink units."

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