This article marks significant
turning points in the 3 year struggle against Coca- Cola’s
environmental record. Listing the events, the author then
goes on to ask what solutions can be made available given
that the state appears to have divested itself of all
autonomy in the face of multi-national capital.
Coca-Cola Virudha Janakeeya Samara Samithy (Anti Coca
Cola Peoples Struggle Committee) consists of the people
in and around Plachimada, mostly landless agricultural
labourers belonging to the Eravalar and Malasar Scheduled
Tribe communities who are classified as ‘Primitive
Tribes’ by the Government of Kerala. Besides, there
are also the Dalits and small farmers from different castes
and religions. The Plachimada Struggle Solidarity Committee
is constituted by 32 organisations from across the State
of Kerala in support of the just struggle of the people
of Plachimada.
On 15 January 2005 the Adivasi struggle against MNC soft-drink
giant, Coca-Cola entered the 1000th day. The date was
marked with a blockade of the factory at Plachimada, Kerala.
The Adivasis had established a picket in front of the
Coca-Cola factory since 22 April 2002. It was reiterated
that the people would prevent the reopening of the factory
at all cost. It was on 9 March 2004 that the Coca-Cola
factory suspended production.
On 22 April 2005, the struggle against Coca-Cola in Plachimada
completed three years. The Anti Coca Cola Struggle Committee
and Plachimada Struggle Solidarity Committee have already
firmly declared that the Cola Company, which has obtained
permission to extract 500,000 litres from the High Court,
would not be permitted to operate in Plachimada.
The struggle had drawn diverse organizations such as
Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha, Democratic Youth federation
of India, All India Youth Federation, Solidarity Youth
Movement, Yuva Janatha Dal, Yuvajana Vedi, Gandhi Yuva
Mandalam, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, National
Alliance of People’s Movements Lohia Vichar Vedi,
Kerala Swathanthra Matsya Thozhilali Federation, Kerala
Sasthra Sahitya Parishath, Adivasi Samrakshana Sangham,
Desiya Karshaka Sangham, Poraattam, Students Christian
Movement, Small Traders Association, Pattikajathi-Pattikavarga
Munnani (Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribe Front), Palakkad
Munnottu and many others besides many political parties
such as Janatha Dal, Communist Party of India (Marxist),
Communist Party of India, Socialist Unity Center of India,
Communist Party of India-ML (Red Flag), Communist Party
of India-ML (Liberation), Samajvadi Jana Parishad and
a host of others in active support of the struggle.
On 14 February 2005 the Investigation Team constituted
by the High Court on 19 December 2003 submitted the Final
Report on Investigations on the Extraction of Groundwater
by Hindustan Coca-Cola beverages Pvt. Ltd (HCCB) at Plachimada.
The Expert Committee had permitted extraction with restrictions
up to 5 lakh liters per day and lesser according to the
extent of rainfall. This report was flawed on a number
of counts which were pointed out by a number of people.
But the High Court preferred to go by the recommendations
in the Report instead. The High Court declared on 7 April
2005 that the Panchayat was not justified in not issuing
the license and ordered that license be issued within
one week of the application by HCCB, provided that the
company had the license under the Factories Act and the
necessary clearance from the Pollution Control Board.
On 13 April 2005, HCCB filed an application to the Panchayat
for renewal of license for a period of five years from
1 April 2005. On 26 April the Panchayat rejected the application
citing non-fulfillment of the conditions set by the High
Court for issue of license.
Outlook news magazine had commissioned Sargam Metals Laboratories
(Coca Cola is one of their clients and they are recognized
by the Department of Science and technology, Government
of India) to carry out a water analysis on 23 April 2005
from a well. The lab reported that the water "chemically
does not meet the requirements for most of the parameters
tested for potability as per ISO 10500 specifications
set by the Bureau of Indian Standards.”A pH value
of 3.53 (against the permissible 6.5-8.5 at 25 degree
C), making it "highly acidic". ."If consumed,
it will burn up your insides." Such water cannot
be used for cooking, washing or agriculture. "Clothes
could tear if washed in such water, food will rot, crops
will wither”. While the permissible level of total
dissolved solids (TDS) in potable water is 2,000, the
water…recorded a TDS count of 9,624. The permissible
manganese level is 0.3, but was 6.18 in the tested sample.
Likewise, iron was 1.58 while it should be 1 or less.”
The High Court on 1 June 2005 ordered the Perumatty Panchayat
to consider issuing license within a week of application
for the same by HCCB, and if the Panchayat did not issue
the license in favour of the company then the company
was to be deemed to have received license for operation
effective from 10 June. The Court in effect overrode the
law rather than uphold the law! On June 6 the Panchayat
issued a three-month license, imposing conditions, which
were not acceptable to HCCB. But Coca-Cola resumed production
on 8 August, fraudulently citing the High Court as permitting
to operate as though it had the license when it did not.
Renewal application of the company of 20 September 2004
for commencing operation from 1 January 2005 was pending
with Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). KSPCB
did not consider the application as the plant itself was
ordered closed down by the High Court since 9 March 2004.
Since the application was defective on a number of counts,
especially the silence over the source of cadmium in its
waste, the Pollution Control Board rejected the application
on 19 August 2005 when the High Court permitted Coca Cola
to seek license and commence operation. KSPCB stated that
the “The Board had examined the sludge generated
by the Company and it was found that it was containing
the heavy metal cadmium at concentration of 200 to 300
mg per kg of sludge, which is 400 to 600% above the tolerance/permissible
limit”. Coca Cola had also not complied with the
order to supply piped drinking water to the affected families
as per the direction of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee.
Coca Cola had also not installed Reverse Osmosis System
or any other more efficient system for better treatment
of effluent. Therefore the KSPCB refused grant of clearance.
Meanwhile, both the Panchayat and the State government
appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court orders.
In another setback to Coca Cola, on 19 November 2005
the Kerala Water Resources Minister announced the government
decision to declare of 31 panchayats under clause 6 of
the Kerala Ground Water (Control and Regulation), Act,
2002 as ‘notified area’. Perumatty Panchayat
where Plachimada was located was significant. Once again
the charge of local communities that the Panchayat has
been facing acute survival problems on account of debilitating
quality of water and acute shortage of water stood validated.
The Ground Water Authority can now even reject the request
of use of ground water for industrial purpose in the notified
area.
Coca Cola has been making claims that “their production
process follows zero discharge” meaning that all
their waste water was reused; “a rainwater harvesting
system has been implemented that recharges ground water
with more than what the company extracted” and that
the waste was not hazardous. With the declaration of Perumatty
Panchayat as a “notified area” by the government,
once again it indicts Coca Cola for making patently false
claims and promoting untruths. Perumatty Panchayat is
now classified as “over exploited”. Obviously,
“over exploited” by Coca Cola making all their
claims as nothing but cheap public relations work to bluff
the media and the people.
The lack of improvement in the quality and quantity of
ground water in Plachimada even after more than a year
of the closure of Coca Cola plant was proof enough that
the area’s sub-surface water cannot even marginally
be recharged by rainwater harvesting. If this was so,
there should have been a remarkable improvement in both
the quality and quantity if ground water from the rains
combined with the absence of extraction of ground water
by Coca-Cola in the last one year.
Meanwhile, worldwide the struggle has gained widespread
support including amongst students in Europe and US. Coca-Cola
has been losing out on contracts in the university campuses
and colleges.
HCCB has not only been violating the rights of the people
and the laws of the land, but it has even ignored/disobeyed
the valid and lawful orders of the government departments,
the institutions of self-governance, the state government
as well as the courts. HCCB has demonstrated its utter
disregard of the local communities, the elected representatives,
and the civil society organizations besides the structures
of governance and law.
Why have political actions by political parties been
restricted to the public space and in the streets only?
Why have not political actions been extended to examine
relevant state laws and central laws, and their rules
and regulations considering unanimity in perception on
the basic issues in Plachimada amongst both Left Democratic
Front and the ruling United Democratic Front besides the
Panchayat and State government? Both the political party
alliances are also partners at the center in the United
Political Alliance. Is it not time for the political parties
and others to accept that the present state and central
laws, and the administration of the laws are grossly inadequate
to handle such gross and blatant violation by such companies
as Coca Cola who has been willfully violating laws with
confidence that they can get away? That the people of
Plachimada continue to suffer with polluted water and
lack of potable water due to (rapid) extraction by HCCB
and that HCCB continues to get away with non-compliance
of existing laws indicate that the laws, and rules and
regulations are not inadequate and have failed to act
as a deterrent or prevent such problems, nor are they
sufficient to prosecute in the event of willful violation
of laws that threaten both lives and livelihoods of people?
Therefore review of central legislations, their rules
and regulations could be undertaken to propose changes/amendments
to existing central legislations? These could be construed
as the proper political interventions that political parties
and the central and state governments can do. Why there
is total silence on these fronts when these are obvious?
These actions can also overcome the current legal impediments,
if any. After all, it is the legislature/parliament that
can enact or change laws. It can also overcome the court
orders, which may due to weak laws or absence of laws.
Why is the State government and political parties not
wanting to take the issue outside of the court into the
political arena of legislation and/or executive decisions/actions
as per relevant laws which is amply demonstrated in the
recent turn around of the state government to go on appeal
against the high court judgment and activating the Ministry
of Health to ensure that KSPCB acts as per law? The state
government, until recently, had consistently acted against
the interest of the people of Plachimada, for instance
by the acts of omission and commission of KSPCB by attempting
to frustrate the legally valid actions of Perumatty Panchayat.
Was this not a clear signal that foreign investors were
welcome to invest, extract natural resources including
survival resources of the people, and violate the law
as long as they can get away with such violations? Was
it also not a clear signal that the state and the judiciary
would remain passive or even active collaborators to such
violations as long as public protests and people’s
resistance can be contained?
The struggle has clearly outlined that the state has
lost its capacity to act on its own against capital. Public
protests to raise issues, provide explanation to the issues
and provide direction to resolving them does not any longer
lead to the requisite political, administrative or judicial
response. The struggle has also to define the solution
and develop the strategy for solution. This is so in this
era of globalisation. The earlier notion of struggle in
the form of street protests and other forms of protests
are no longer sufficient to resolve the issue. In addition
to these, the struggle has also to provide the solution
which would transform the governance system as the present
governance system has become subservient to, controlled/influenced
by and an instrument of market and global capital. Therefore
a governance system controlled by the masses need to be
thought about.
In this case, the command over ground water and the right
to protect the environment should be transferred from
being the exclusive prerogative of the state agencies
to the people directly as community rights for which Panchayat
Raj Act (local self government system) amendments could
be made empowering the gram sabha (village assembly) directly.
There are already precedents in the constitution for instance
in the Panchayat Raj (Extension to the Scheduled Areas)
Act 1996.
The agenda has to move beyond and not away from ‘anti-coca
cola’ to the agenda for people’s rights and
powers. In other words, solutions for problems of democracy
lie in further democratization. The state of Kerala is
simply just ripe for this after the many experiences in
decentralization and people’s planning. The challenge
is to move away from decentralization to that of evolution
of non-centralized governance system.