M. Appavu, former MLA and a petitioner in the case against supply of Tamirabarani river water to the co-packers of PepsiCo and Coca-Cola in Tirunvelveli district, said that he would file a review petition against Madurai Bench of Madras High Court’s order on Thursday allowing water supply from the river to continue for both the companies.
Speaking to media here on Friday, Mr. Appavu said that the court was mislead by Tirunelveli district administration and the Small Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) that was managing the Industrial Growth Centre (IGC) at Gangaikondan in which both the companies were located.
Claiming that the argument made by SIPCOT and the district administration that only a portion of the excess surface water flowing into the sea was being given to the co-packers of PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, he said that there were several water-starved regions in southern districts in need of that water.
“The Tamirabarani-Karumerniyar-Nambiyar interlinking project, intended to utilise the excess water from Tamirabarani, was started during the previous DMK regime with a budget of ₹369 crore. After completion of half the work, nothing had progressed in the past six years of AIADMK rule. However, the government was keen on ensuring that PepsiCo and Coca-Cola got water,” he alleged.
He also termed the idea presented to the court by Tirunelveli district administration that the heights of Papanasam and Manimuthar dams could be increased to store more water as short-sighted.
“It may have a huge environmental cost. The district administration was just trying to mislead the court by presenting unviable ideas when the State government had miserably failed in executing a project that was already in progress,” he said.
Mr. Appavu said he also disagreed with the reasoning that other industries inside IGC were being provided more water than the co-packers of PepsiCo and Coca-Cola and hence it was unfair to blame these two companies alone.
He said that while the other companies were the actual industries in the conventional sense, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola were just commodifying water by fetching it for a minuscule price and selling it later for an astronomically higher price.
