‘We were shocked, the paint is being removed from the rocks’

The Express correspondent said the huge rocks along the stretch were plastered with ads of a large number of companies and their products.

Our immediate reaction was the company’s guidelines on wall paintings do not allow such painting well outside the points of consumption. We contacted our franchisee bottler in the region immediately and got into action to remove the paint from the rocks. The work is in progress.

We were not surprised to hear on Wednesday about the Supreme Court taking exception to such painting, based on a petition filed by the Solicitor-General of India.

As a company, we target our wall paintings closest to the point of consumption, primarily in, on and around our outlets. It is indeed unfortunate that the third-party painters went and painted on rocks along the Rohtang pass.

This is something that should have never happened. We are taking corrective measures and making sure that, in future, our guidelines on outdoor advertising are strictly adhered to by all our constituents.

Our commitment to protect the nature and environment extends throughout our organization. It will be nice if other corporates, local companies and social bodies, whose messages are also plastered on these rocks, also take similar action to remove the paints.