The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the State should ensure justice to the victims of exploitation of groundwater resources by aerated drinks major Coca-Cola in Plachimada, social activist Medha Patkar has said.
Addressing public meetings at Adakkaputhur and Shoranur here on Sunday, she said the government must prove its commitment to the Plachimada cause by reintroducing the Plachimada Tribunal Bill returned by the President within the legally assigned rights of the State.
She also expressed anxiety over the reluctance of the State Home Department in initiating criminal proceedings against Coca-Cola company directors under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, for groundwater exploitation and pollution.
Plight of rivers
“Other than registering just a police case, the new State government has done nothing so far to bring the company under the Indian system of criminal jurisprudence,” she said. She said she was worried about the pathetic state of the rivers in Kerala, especially Bharathapuzha, which was reduced to a trickle months ahead of the onset of summer. The promised river management boards are still in paper, she pointed out. She said the LDF had won public mandate this time by highlighting many such crucial issues of life and livelihood, ignored conveniently by political combines led by the BJP and the Congress.
Stressing the need of evolving a broader platform of the followers of Karl Marx, B.R. Ambedkar and Ram Manohar Lohia to protect the ordinary people, Ms. Patkar said environmentalism must not be viewed outside ambit of political philosophy. In a scathing attack on the Union government and the BJP leadership, she said demonetisation was aimed only at protecting the interests of corporates looting natural resources. “The Narmada river, where I struggled for the last three decades with local tribespeople and Dalits, is now opened for monopoly tourism operations of the Ambanis. Kerala must be vigilant against the ulterior motives of the Adanis who are now promoting the Vizhinjam harbour project without acknowledging the concerns of the local fish workers,” she said. She urged people to join the national platform for fighting for land and agriculture rights of the rural communities.
