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Agence France-Presse

Coca-Cola has temporarily halted operations at a bottling plant in northern India over alleged environmental violations, an ongoing controversy which has dogged its factories in the country.
The beverages giant said it had voluntarily suspended manufacturing at its Dasna plant near New Delhi while the local environmental authority investigates.
Indian villagers blame Coca-Cola bottling plant for creating water shortage
Activists say the factory in Uttar Pradesh state contaminates groundwater meant for farmers and pollutes the soil, and that sewage is not properly treated.
This is not really a victory because of all the pending issues such as the polluted groundwater and soil
Amit Srivastava
“We received a communication from Uttar Pradesh State Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) and submitted a detailed response,” Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, which bottles drinks in India for the US giant, said on Thursday.
“To show our commitment to compliance with regulatory norms, we decided to temporarily suspend manufacturing at Dasna plant,” it said.
Some 54 plants produce fizzy drinks in India for Coca-Cola, which has eyed expansion in the world’s second-most populous country where income levels are rising.
But the Atlanta-based company has met stiff opposition from activists who have waged a more than decade-long battle against it in India over alleged environmental offences.
“We conducted an inspection and based on the findings, the UPPCB has withheld the consent to operate this Coca-Cola Plant in Dasna for some valid reasons,” S.R. Sachan, chief environmental officer at the Uttar Pradesh environmental board said, without giving further details.

Amit Srivastava, who leads the India Resource Center, an activist group that has targeted Coca-Cola for years, said the company’s action did not go far enough.
“This is not really a victory because of all the pending issues such as the polluted groundwater and soil, as well as the loss of livelihood for the contract workers and farmers in the area,” Srivastava said.
“There is a lot more that needs to be done to remediate the problems caused by Coca-Cola in Dasna.”
Coca-Cola, which has said it plans to invest US$5 billion in India by 2020, has faced a string of objections over the years from local communities over water use.
Ukrainians see red after as Coca-Cola revises Russian map to include Crimea
In 2004, it shut one of its plants in southern Kerala state over similar allegations. The company denies any wrongdoing.
Last year it dropped plans to open a new bottling plant in southern Tamil Nadu state over protests by locals who also claimed it would rob them of groundwater.


Coca-Cola pulls plug at India plant for pollution probe

File photo of an Indian man drinking Coca-Cola. Photo: AFP

Sealed glass bottles of Coke soft drink move along a conveyor on the production line at the Coca-Cola Co. factory in Dongen, Netherlands, on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016. Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft-drink company, last month posted second-quarter sales that missed analysts' estimates as falling revenue abroad outweighed modest gains in the U.S. Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg

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