Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Dec 30, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Dec 30, 2003 |
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Industry & Economy
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Beverages `Villagers' disrupt House panel hearing on Coke Our Bureau
Mr Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy (full sleeves and pants, in the foreground), General Manager, Coca-Cola, making his way out of the commotion after anti-cola activists tried to manhandle him outside the venue of an Assembly panel hearing on the Plachimada bottling plant controversy in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. - C. Ratheesh Kumar
Thiruvananthapuram , Dec. 29 AN Assembly Subject Committee on Water Resources and Electricity holding a hearing here on the Plachimada Coke bottling plant controversy had to contend with anti-Coke activists creating a ruckus just outside the venue. The Electricity Minister, Mr Kadavoor Sivadasan, deputising for the Subject Committee Chairman and Minister for Water Resources, Mr T.M. Jacob, said a second session would be held at Plachimada after getting the requisite clearance from the Speaker of the State Assembly. Activists of the Plachimada Samrakshana Samithy, one of the popular groupings arraigned against the Coke plant, had earlier refused to travel all the way to Thiruvananthapuram and take part in the hearing since "no Adivasi could hope to foot the bill on his own." They were willing to depose only if the Subject Committee held a hearing session at Plachimada. Earlier on Monday, the city saw busloads of purportedly "affected people" from Plachimada descending on the main thoroughfare leading to the Legislative Assembly Complex where the hearing was to begin from 10.30 a.m. They had started arriving in the city since last evening and were accommodated at a number of `kalayana mandapams' and other public places for the overnight stay. A team of Coke officials, headed by Mr Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, General Manger, Corporate Affairs, Coke India, had presented itself for deposing before the committee on what it thought was the nature of circumstances leading to the current situation in Plachimada. Also present were a delegation representing the local administration body at the Plachimada panchayat and a former member of the Legislative Assembly representing the area. Those assembling at the venue of the hearing were told that the Subject Committee would not be able to meet every one of them; only a representative group would be let in. This had set the "stage" for what the committee had not apparently bargained for from a growingly restive crowd. The scene was now left for activists of the Democratic Youth Front of India, the Marxist youth wing, and the Youth Congress to enter. Joining hands with the assembled crowd, they tried to manhandle Mr Reddy even as a TV channel was interviewing him. A large posse of policemen had been called in to prevent the pro and anti-cola campaigners from coming to blows. Mr Reddy had to flee virtually on his own, after the "blinding speed" of events unfolding at the venue of the first Plachimada hearing left hardly any time for the police to act.
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