THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Veteran CPM leader V.S. Achuthanandan on Friday called upon the local people to launch a do or die battle against Pepsico India’s till its bottling plant at Kanjikode is shut down. The veteran leader was inaugurating the agitation organised by the CPM and its mass organisations in front of the Pepsi Plant. If the company continued to plunder groundwater in this manner, the future generations would have no water even to drink, he said. The veteran leader alleged that the extraction of huge quantity of ground water had resulted in acute shortage of drinking water in the drought prone area.
He said the next world war, if it took place, could well be on the question of water. At a time when the state was on the verge of drought, the plunder of ground water by big companies would only result in serious crisis. He called for conservation of ground water sources, protection and revival of ponds, lakes and rivers. Achuthanandan demanded immediate shut down of the company and said the peoples agitation will continue till they wound up their operations. Meanwhile, Industries Minister A C Moideen said he would look into the Puthussery issue and intervene if required.
The Pudussery grama panchayat had recently issued a stop memo asking directing the company to suspend operations for six months. The local people alleged that there were at least 7 high capacity bore wells within the compound of the company. However, the company has all along refuting the allegations regarding over exploitation of ground water. They claim that the plant was using only 6 lakh litres of ground water daily.
Observers however say that CPM had been forced to step up the agitation against Pepsico since rivals like BJP were also raising issues of drinking water problem in the area in a big way. With the BJP securing huge number of votes and coming second in the Malampuzha constituency where the plant is located, the CPM leadership believes ignoring the issues of local people could prove detrimental to their interests.
