The Kerala Cabinet today clamped a four-month ban on use of groundwater by the Coca Cola plant at Plachimada in Palakkad district citing severe drought in the area as the reason.The company said it would come out with its response only after it gets the orders. ‘‘The matter is sub-judice.any discriminatory and extreme steps against our plant by the Kerala government would be unwarranted and unjustified as the entire matter is pending before the high court,’’ it said in a press release.Chief Minister A.K. Antony, who announced the decision to ban use of groundwater till June 15 by the plant, said it was upto the company to decide to carry on with its operations tapping sources other than groundwater.The Coca-Cola plant at Plachimada has been at the centre of a controversy for over an year after a section of local people launched an agitation alleging the unit depleted and polluting groundwater in the drought-prone area.It started on April 9, 2002, when the Perumatty gram panchayat decided to cancel the licence. Coca-Cola approached the high court and obtained a stay order against the panchayat’s decision. The factory was reportedly drawing 1.5 million of groundwater everyday and 85 truck-loads of product left the company.Studies conducted by well-known environmentalists including members of Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad warned that the situation could only worsen in the coming days as the water that was being extracted was enough to quench the thirst of 20,000 people.The company always maintained it had invested over Rs 80 crore and had employed advanced rainwater harvesting techniques. On May 16, 2003, the Kerala high court issued a stay on the cancelling of licence by the gram panchayat. It has been a pitched battle since.The protestors got a fillip with the recent Joint Parliamentary Committee Report that said that these companies should be paying for extraction of groundwater.
