(This is a video documentary)
“Will future generations be able to live in this place?”
This is what the people and activists of Plachimada worried about in 2002, when they protested against the Coca-Cola plant in their village. Fifteen long years after the Coca-Cola plant that was polluting the ground water in Plachimada was shut down because of people’s protests, the ghosts of Plachimada’s corporate past still haunt the people.
“Earlier, we used to have good water in our wells. But now, it is contaminated. We are now forced to use pipe water. Despite having water in the wells, we have to pay Rs 100 per month to get this water every alternate day. This is the condition we live in today,” says Thangavelu, a resident and activist of Plachimada.
Seventy-eight-year old Kanniammal still recalls those dark days when she and her family used and drank the polluted water from their well. At the time, they hadn't realised that their corporate neighbour was slowly contaminating their ground water.
“When we saw that the rice is not boiling, we tried cooking for more time. Slowly we started realising that we were unable to cook anything in the water. If we used the water for bathing, we could not see anything for sometime. We felt light headed and dizzy,” she recalls.
In their fight to save the ground water rescuers of their village, the people of Plachimada have sacrificed jobs, money, well being, time and precious human lives. They say that that Coca-Cola has robbed them of these things over the years.
However, the company has refused to offer Plachimada’s victims any compensation. In 2011, a bill to compensate the victims of Plachimada with Rs 216 crore was passed by the state government. Yet, this bill did not see the light of day and was killed in 2015 after it failed to receive the President’s assent.
“Reintroducing the Plachimada victim’s compensation bill was an electoral promise of the CPI(M) government. It has been 3 years since they have come to power. They have cheated us and have been passing the buck to different departments,” says Vilayodi Venugopal, an activist who led agitations against the Coke plant back in 2002.
When TNM contacted the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Ltd (which had set up the plant), they spoke about an unrelated CSR initiative with no mention of compensation to victims.
“HCCB is seeking to initiate a program on education, livelihood, skill development and healthcare services for the local community in line with its commitment to make a positive impact in the lives of the people surrounding its operations,” the statement read.
But Plachimada’s people have only one demand: compensation for their losses.
“If the government cannot get Coca-Cola to compensate us, let the government set aside funds and compensate us. They were responsible for bringing coke here. If they cannot do that, it shows their inefficiency,” Vilayodi added.