As the Right to Water March goes through its third week, there has been huge support in the heartland of Northern India. The march has already passed through 7 communities in the neighborhood of bottling plants and these communities - schools and colleges, village sabhas, small town meetings - have expressed solidarity through signature campaigns and return invitations to the marchers. Under pressure from these communities, CPCB has agreed to investigate pollution dumping by Coke at its Mehdiganj plant.

In Bundelkhand, a region that is generally dry, while people knew about pesticides in the Colas, new awareness of how the bottling plants are draining water tables has gained the marchers much solidarity.  

In a meeting organized in a village called Nangary near IIT Kanpur, several professors and local activists supported the campaign against Coca-Cola. Professor Sunderlal Iyer, Deepak Gupta, Kumar Sambav, activists Suresh Yadav, Mohd Islam, Radheshyam Viswakarma and Vijayadidi, daughter of former president of India Venkatraman spoke in support of the campaign.

Earlier meetings were organized in Jhansi college attended by 500 students. Answering to questions from students, Nandlal Master refuted the common misconceptions that industries such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi create many jobs and pay taxes which are important to India. Nandlal Master said that the jobs created by Coca-Cola hardly benefit locals and displace many more local businesses and that Coca-Cola and Pepsi have enjoyed tax breaks and pay very little tax for the natural resources they consume.

Protests were also organized in front of Coca-Cola plant in Dadanagar and Pepsi plant in Raniya near Kanpur. The yatra also met with local campaigns led by unions against LML Vespa and cotton mills in a meeting in front of Labor commissioners office in Rawatpur. The unions welcomed and the campaign against Coca-Cola and pledged their support for the campaign. Activists Vijay Chawla, R.T Tiwari, Arvind Murthy and Mahendar spoke in the meeting. A press conference was organized in Kanpur attended by Nandlal Master of Lok Samiti and Sandeep Pandey of NAPM.

On September 21st, group of activists from Jal Adhikar Yatra and NAPM stormed the offices of State Pollution Control Board and Central pollution Control Board to demand actions on pollutions found in Mehndiganj area due to Coca-Cola plant. 50-60 activists entered the State Pollution Control Board and dumped the sludge they had carried with them  from Mehndiganj in the office. When the activists entered the office,  no officials were present. After half hour of protesting through songs and slogans, an officer came to meet with them. A petition was submitted by the yatra activists to the officer.

The petition asked what actions have been taken by SPCB after CPCB tests revealed the presence of toxic heavy metals lead,cadmium and chromium in the sludge from Coca-Cola plant of Mehndiganh. The petition also asked SPCB to explain the contradiction posed by SPCB when it sent a letter to activists on 7th June on an RTI(Right to information) that there is no toxic heavy metal in its testing of sludge from Coca-Cola plant and yet it directed Coca-Cola plant on 18th July to store the hazardous waste in a safe manner based on the testing by CPCB. The petition also asked that if there is no more toxic metals founds in the sludge, what process changes that Coca-Cola initiated to remove these hazardous wastes in its sludge and effluents and demanded tests on the sludge brought by the activists. The SPCB official accepted the sludge dumped by the activists for further testing and gave a letter in writing that action will be taken on their petition.

The activists also visited the Central Pollution Control Board office where initially officials threatened to call police when the activists entered their office and shouted slogans. On recognizing Sandeep Pandey, they apologized and accepted the petition by the activists. The activists demanded why CPCB did not publicly release the results of the tests done in 16 Coca-Cola and Pepsi plants which found lead,cadmium and chromium in all the tests and what action has been initiated by CPCB on petitions by Swadeshi science movement of India. In a petition earlier, Swadeshi science movement had shown that water level has decreased in this region after Coca-Cola's operation in Mehdniganj and is a environment threat in the region. The officer told the activists that action will be taken by CPCB and that Coca-Cola cannot be banned because of the presence of heavy toxic metals found in their sludge due to a law that was passed after Kerala PCB closed the plant. However action can be taken against Coca-Cola if the ground water has been contaminated with lead,cadmium or chromium. CPCB ordered testing of sludge, effluents and ground water which will be collected in the presence of volunteers from Lok Samiti.

Meetings were also conducted in market places and schools of Lucknow, Hardohi and Sitapur where more signatures were collected from people and students who pledged that they will not drink soft drinks anymore because of Coca-Cola's violation of rights of Mehndiganj community. The activists also cleaned the public toilets with Coca-Cola in front of Legislative assembly. In Sitapur, the group visited a local dharna and extended their support for the dharna -M against the corruption and misgovernance in implementation of national rural employment guarantee.

As a result of these demonstrations, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) will visit the Coca-Cola bottling plant at Mehndiganj near Varanasi to check if toxic effluents are polluting water bodies and agricultural fields adjacent to the unit.

The CPCB took the decision on the request of the National Alliance of People\'s Movements (NAPM), that has accused the cola giant of spreading pollution. In their Yatra, NAPM has been using the CSE report on pesticide content in colas to demand ban on the soft drinks in the country. NAPM charged the companies with exploiting 25-30 lakh litre of ground water daily and pushing down the water level in Mehndiganj.

National Coordinator NAPM Dr Sandeep Pandey said the CPCB\nhad taken sludge samples from the Coca Cola Mehndiganj plant in 2003. The investigation reports had shown that the sludge contained\nheavy metal conconcentration like lead, chromium and\ncadmium much above the permission limit. But no action had been taken against\nthe company so far.

He said when the report was referred to State Pollution\nControl Board they went ahead and gave a clean chit to the cola giants. Pandey\nalleged that the State Pollution Control Board had connived with the cola\ncompany. In a memorandum to the Central and State Pollution Control Board, NAPM\nhas demanded reinvestigation of the sludge samples.

The CPCB took the decision on the request of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), that has accused the cola giant of spreading pollution. NAPM activists also went to the Pollution Control Board office on Thursday after their Jal Adhikar Yatra reached here this morning.

In their Yatra, NAPM has been using the CSE report on pesticide content in colas to demand ban on the soft drinks in the country. NAPM charged the companies with exploiting 25-30 lakh litre of ground water daily and pushing down the water level in Mehndiganj.

National Coordinator NAPM Dr Sandeep Pandey said the CPCB had taken sludge samples from the Coca Cola Mehndiganj plant in 2003. The investigation reports had shown that the sludge contained heavy metal conconcentration like lead, chromium and cadmium much above the permission limit. But no action had been taken against the company so far.

He said when the report was referred to State Pollution Control Board they went ahead and gave a clean chit to the cola giants. Pandey alleged that the State Pollution Control Board had connived with the cola company. In a memorandum to the Central and State Pollution Control Board, NAPM has demanded reinvestigation of the sludge samples.

The campaign said: It is not that we are only against Coca Cola. We\noppose Pepsi too. But Coke\'s track record is bad worldwide and they are\ninvolved in unethical activities. The company killed nine labourers\nin Columbia. They also\ninvolved child labourers in Pakistan and nviolated labour laws.

Meanwhile, Hindustan Times reported Dr Sandeep Pandey's statement that Coke continued to evade stamp duty of about Rs 1.75 crores at the time of opening of the factory in Mehndiganj. Coke has been running a campaign against Dr Pandey vis-a-vis funds coming from abroad. Dr. Pandey pointed out that funds for Asha trust comes from NRIs and friends and that Asha Trust has been audited twice by the government. Rebuffing Ranjan’s charges, Pandey asked the cola major to come clean on the income tax and revenue that was due with the Government of India and other State Governments. Pandey said “Will they tell us under which MoU the company is doing bottled water business in our country?”

Contacts: Nandlal Master, Lok Samiti Varanasi, 9815300520