Southern States - Kerala   

Panchayat chief criticises Govt. stance on Coke issue

By Our Staff Reporter

PALAKKAD AUG. 1. The Perumatty grama panchayat president, A. Krishnan, has said that he does not expect justice from the State Government on the issue of cancellation of licence of the Coca-Cola plant at Plachimada after the "pro-Coca-Cola" statement by the Local Administration Minister, Cherkalam Abdulla, on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference here today, Mr. Krishnan said the licence was cancelled on April 7 "for violating various statutory rules as well as for over-exploitation of groundwater and creating pollution'' affecting the local people.

He said the Minister had stated that the Government had powers to take a decision on the appeal of the company challenging the cancellation of its licence by the panchayat. While taking a decision, the Government should have to consider the interest of the people of the State as a whole, not that of Chittur or Palakkad alone, the Minister was reported to have said.

The panchayat president said the Kerala High Court had directed the Local Administration Secretary to take a decision on the cancellation of the licence before July 16. But he had not yet taken a decision. The Court directed the Secretary to hear the appeal of the company in the absence of a tribunal. Thus, he was directed to discharge a judicial function. But the statement of the Minister came at a time when the Secretary was considering the matter and the final hearing was posted for August 8. ``This could influence the decision of the Secretary working under the Minister,'' he said.

Mr. Krishnan said the panchayat council meeting held on Thursday had written to the District Collector to take action against the company functioning `unauthorisedly'. The panchayat had also written to the departments of Revenue and Health to take action against it for "violating" the Kerala Land Utilisation Act and the statutory provisions of the Health Department.

He said the panchayat had also asked the KSEB to stop the ongoing work of drawing the electric line to the company since it had no licence. It had also written to the Director of the Kerala Agricultural University to conduct a detailed study of the `toxic sludge' given by the company to farmers as fertilizer, he added.

The former MLA of Chittur and secretary general of the Janata Dal(S), K. Krishnankutty, who also addressed the press conference, said the company had violated various statutory provisions. It had not provided to the panchayat the periodical test results of groundwater and sludge to determine pollution.

Mr. Krishnanakutty alleged that in the project report, the company had shown only one borewell but in fact it dug six of them. He alleged that 260 borewells that were functioning in the area went dry because the groundwater table had gone down.

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