Palakkad: Even as over Rs 200 crores in compensation remains to be paid, the Coca-Cola Company has decided to hand over its 35-acre property at Plachimada in the Palakkad district to the Kerala government.
Minister for Electricity, K Krishnankutty said on Thursday that the Chief Executive Officer of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, Juan Pablo Rodriguez, has written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan about their decision.
Minister Krishnankutty said the state government had been holding talks with the Cola major regarding the takeover of the property that remains unused for nearly two decades in order to start a Farmer Producer Organisation.
After allegedly polluting Plachimada between 2000 and 2004, the Coca-Cola plant was shut down in 2005. A public protest for compensation continues at Plachimada.
A High Power Committee (HPC) had been set up in 2009 to assess the scale and nature of damages caused by Coca-Cola. It had pegged the damages at Rs 216 crore.
The HPC found massive depletion of groundwater and solid waste, distributed as manure by the Coca-Cola authorities, scattered over farmlands. Studies found the solid waste to contain high levels of cancer-inducing Cadmium and Lead.
Noted ecologist S Faizi, from whom the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) sought a report, had given details of the pollution.
"Lead in the well water was 11 times more than the permissible maximum, Cadmium in well water was double the permissible limit, Cadmium in the sludge was six times the maximum permitted."
