Communities around bottling plants are becoming increasingly affected by and reacting to unethical practices by Coke in India.

On December 9, 2005, gram panchayat members and people of the villages in and near Singhachavar Coca Cola bottling plant, took direct action by reclaiming their (Gram Panchayat�s) land back which was illegally occupied and unauthorized construction done by Coca Cola.

Coca Cola Inc had illegally occupied Gram Panchayat�s land and constructed a road linking it�s Singhachavar bottling plant to the main road. They had also built upon a huge gate, despite of the protests of people against this unauthorized construction done by Coca Cola on the land belonging as per law to Gram Panchayat.

Villagers led by Gram Pradhan herself, reached on spot and took direct action by reclaiming the land back. They demolished the unauthorized construction of Coca Cola gate on Gram Panchayat land on Friday last. Coca Cola Inc Manager of Singhachar bottling plant came in person with Coca Cola security staff to resist this people�s direct action and shoo them away, however people were resolute to get their land back from Coca Cola. The Manager and Coca Cola security staff threatened and had barely begun physically moving people away from the illegally occupied land of Coca Cola, when patience of people wore away and they retorted back by thrashing Coca Cola manager and security and shooing them away.

Senior social activist and Magsaysay Awardee 2002 Dr Sandeep Pandey who is also the leader of National Alliance of People�s Movements, said that this is a very positive news because by passing the buck of responsibility around or shunning it to government or someone else, desired change will not happen. Unless civil society takes the responsibility of social justice and equity, the struggles will continue. He also said that the unethical way corporations like Coca Cola Inc work to manipulate laws, legislations and pro-people policies to serve it�s own profit-interest, warrants radical measures. He cited the Kerala High Court judgement and demanded a similar closure of Coca Cola Pepsi Cola bottling plants which are siphoning away millions of liters of underground water and depriving communities from natural resources.

It is sad that our administration had turned a blind eye to people�s complaints of illegal land occupation by Coca Cola and not taken any direct action against Coca Cola.

On December 11th, PTI reported that at least 60 activists, including Magsaysay awardee Medha Patkar, protesting "exploitation of ground water" by Coca-Cola were today taken into preventive custody for defying prohibitory orders and trying to march to the soft drink major's Kaladhera plant, about 55 km from here.

NGOs like People's Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan Kisan Union,
Nagarik Parishad, Arya Samaj, Janwadi Mahila Sabha, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Rashtriya Yuva Yojna, National Muslim Women's Society and Gram Vikas Samiti joined the rally and demonstrations.

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