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Conditional licence for Plachimada Coke plant

Staff Reporter

Perumatty grama panchayat imposes 17 conditions

PALAKKAD: The Perumatty grama panchayat on Wednesday issued a fresh licence to Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverage Private Limited's bottling unit at Plachimada for three months, imposing 17 conditions, to comply with a High Court order.

A Division Bench of the Court in an order on November 16, 2005 had directed the local body to issue licence to the soft drink major before January 6, 2006 if it applied for a fresh licence. And the company put up a fresh application for licence last month.

The first condition is that the company should not draw groundwater from the Perumatty panchayat limits. The second, it should clear doubts among the local people about the findings of the Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court, which, in its report on Plachimada, has said that cadmium is found in the drinks and that there is change of taste for the groundwater drawn in the area. The company has to find out the reasons for these and take remedial measures. The conditions include disclosure of the ingredients of the drinks made in the unit, explanations for the finding of dangerous materials such as cadmium in the drinks and statutory licence from agencies such as the State Pollution Control Board. The company has to meet all the conditions within 15 days. If the company fails to meet them, the licence will be cancelled. The company had earlier applied for renewing the licence for two years, which the panchayat rejected twice. The panchayat on June 14, 2005 had issued a licence for three months imposing 13 conditions and the company went in appeal against it.

The CPI(M) MP N. N. Krishnadas opposed the State Government's reported proposal to shift the Coca-Cola unit at Plachimada to Kanjikode or Malampuzha or some other location in the district.

He said here on Wednesday the basic issue of the agitation against the Coke plant at Plachimada and the Pepsi Cola unit at Kanjikode was the exploitation of groundwater by the soft drink majors.

Mr. Krishnadas asked the Government to make its stand clear on the issue of exploitation of groundwater. by the Cola companies.

He said if the Government decided to allow the company to draw groundwater in a new location it would be opposed as there was shortage of it in the district.

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