COCA-COLA TOLD TO PAY FOR DAMAGE TO ENVIRONMENT

INDIA, KERALA PANEL ASKS COCA-COLA
TO PAY FOR DAMAGES CAUSED BY PLANT

NEW DELHI (Times) - Coca-Cola, the world’s largest beverages maker, should pay Rs 216 crore compensation for pollution and depleting groundwater. A high-power committee appointed by Kerala government has accused Coca-Cola of causing damages to the tune of Rs 216.26 crore through the operation of its bottling plant in Plachimada in Palakkad district. Observing that there was "impeccable evidence to prove that the Plachimada factory had caused immense damage to the environment and people and their health". Besides heavy withdrawal of ground water, the bottling plant run by Coca-Cola’s bottling arm, Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages, had "inflicted harm on the farming and environment in the area" by dumping solid waste. The company is responsible for these damages and it's obligatory that they pay the compensation to the affected people for the agricultural losses, health problems, loss of wages, loss of educational opportunities and the pollution caused to the water resources, the Committe said.

Sludge from the plant, supplied to farmers as fertiliser, contained dangerous levels of cadmium and lead, says the report, breaking up the damages into losses incurred under various heads between 1999 and 2004. The plant was shut six years ago after protests against the company. Coca-Cola, however, rejected the report. Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd denied that its operations had caused any damage. "Based on scientific evaluation, our Plachimada plant operations haven't been shown to be the cause of local watershed issues," the company said.


Soft drinks have zero nutritional value compared with native Indian drinks like nimbu pani, lassi, panna, sattu. The soft drinks giants, through advertising, have made the youth of India feel ashamed of their indigenous drinkings, in spite of its nutritive and healthy values.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

With the proliferation of automobiles, air pollution threatens humanity, the industrial revolution has brought air and water pollution, truck farming with its pesticides and chemical fertilizers has introduced innumerable poisons into our food system, advances in physics have brought about the nuclear threat and possible holocaust, ... Even with all the advances in medical cures, new and incurable diseases have only increased. It seems that the goals of knowledge and pleasure have not been achieved.

Śrīpad Bhakti Bhāvana Vishnu Mahārāja :
“Has Science Failed Us?” - “Thesis”
Sri Narasingha Chaitanya Matha
http://www.gosai.com/chaitanya/