At the site, Balchand Pradhan from Gajipur and his group sang several folk songs (Poison, Poison, Poison; There is lots of poison in Coca-cola!) on the struggle.

This follows a sit in over 3 months followed by a relay fast for 4 days. The activists Nandlal Master and Nagepur Panchayat President (Pradhan) Mukesh Kumar then started an indefinite hunger strike for these demands. Two women farmers, Sitau devi and Sulabha Devi who are affected by the plant initiated the hunger strike by tying ribbon around the activists’ hands. The struggle against this plant has been going on since the summer of 2003 and local villagers are fighting for their right to save their groundwater which is under threat because of the operations of the plant, drawing extraordinarily large volumes of water per day. Moreover, a recent Central Pollution Control Board report has revealed that the sludge generated by the plant contains toxins like Cadmium, Chromium and Lead which pose an additional threat to groundwater contamination.

More than 500 women and men staged a protest against Coca Cola in solidarity with the activists. Various speakers in the community pointed out that the Government has failed to take any action against Coca Cola even after 97 days of protest. In view of this the activists have been compelled to start the indefinite hunger strike. Different organizations from Varanasi area have also participated to show their support.

In Varanasi, a press conference was organized to highlight the struggle and the upcoming national conference on water privatization. The press conference was well attended by journalists. Father Anand from Sajha Sanskruti Manch, Mr. Aflatoon from Samajwadi Jan Parishad, Chanchal Mukherjee, Ranjeet Yadav, Arvind from Lok Samiti, Kavita from AID headed the conference.

They pointed that the fast pace of globalization has resulted in the exploitation of land, water and natural resources by multi-national companies in third world countries. The privatization of natural resources such as the privatization of river sheonath, mining of natural resources in Orissa have affected the lives and livelihoods of communities who are forging a national movement to fight against the injustice.

On June 30^th, there will be a one-day national conference at Sampoorna Sanskrut University, Varanasi to discuss government’s proposal of privatizing urban water supply systems. On July 1^st, there will be a conference in Mehdiganj in front of Coca-cola factory to discuss on strategies of national movements around water privatization. In the afternoon, a ceremony will be conducted to initiate the construction of lake through community shramdaan. In support of the conference, communities will contribute food materials for the attendees.

These efforts seem to have intimidated Coca-Cola. On 28^th, Coca-cola initiated another rainwater harvesting effort in Kallipur village here. Through this, Coca-cola claims that it will harvest up to 3.75 lakh liters of water (compared with 200 lakh liters of water they withdraw by their own estimates)

Lok Samiti and National Alliance of People’s Movements have placed the following six demands to stop the Coca Cola Company from exploiting water:

1. The daily exploitation of 25 lakh liters of ground water by the Coca Cola Company should be stopped immediately.
2. Those farmers whose land and crop have been affected by the poisonous sludge and waste water from Coca Cola Company must be compensated adequately and further pollution must be stopped immediately.
3. Coca Cola should return the illegally occupied public land that belongs to the Mehdiganj Panchayat.
4. All the false cases that have been registered on the workers of Coca Cola and the activists should be withdrawn.
5. The company must pay the stamp duty and the fine as per the court orders
6. The license of Coca Cola plant in Mehdiganj should be cancelled.

Meanwhile, the Central Pollution Control Board has forwarded its report showing high levels of heavy metals in samples around plant site as shown in the table below. Clearly, the plant must be shutdown till its environmental policies and processes are resolved.

Contacts: Lok Samiti office, Nagepur, PO Benipur, Varanasi, UP, India – 221307, T: +91-542-2632433, +91 94153 00520,  Email: napm_upATyahooDOTcom