Coca-Cola's bottling plant has been shut down in Mehdiganj by the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board following violation of certain norms and complaints of increase in water pollution
 

This article was updated on 21 June 2014 at 3pm

The Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) has ordered Coca-Cola to shut down its bottling plant in Mehdiganj after the soft-drink company was found violating certain norms under the 'No Objection Certificate' (NOC). This action taken by the UPPCB was a result of Coca-Cola's failure to meet a key condition in the temporary license given to it, including to obtain a clearance to extract groundwater from the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA), Lok Samiti, which has been fighting for the closure of Mehdiganj plant said in a release.

The groundwater in Mehdiganj, which was marked in the 'safe' category in 1999 when Coca-Cola first opened it's plant had gone to the 'critical' category in 2009. In its order on 6 June 2014, the Pollution Board, said, “Coca-Cola had increased its production capacity from 20,000 cases per day to 36,000 without the Board’s permission, and suggested that the company may have misled the Board about the actual amount of industrial waste discharge (which has remained constant, according to Coca-Cola, in spite of increasing production by 80%). The Board also cast doubt on Coca-Cola’s waste treatment plant, noting that the 'Treatment System/Plant' was not operating 'smoothly/properly'.”

In a release, Amit Srivastava from the international campaigning group, India Resource Center (IRC) said, “Coca-Cola’s thirst for profits in India have placed its business interests over the well-being of communities and the environment and this is not acceptable as the community of Mehdiganj has shown. We will ensure that Coca-Cola will face heightened scrutiny anywhere it plans to operate in India because the track record of the company is dismal”.

Coca-Cola had been seeking to expand the capacity of its existing plant in Mehdiganj five-fold as a part of its aggressive growth strategy of India. In 2012, they announced an additional $5 billion investment by 2020 as sales in industrialized countries decline or stagnate due to health concerns. The expanded facility in Mehdiganj has already been built but has not been able to begin commercial operations, the Lok Samiti said in a statement.

The closure of this bottling plant comes at the peak of Coca-Cola's sale in India. The company has approached National Green Tribunal (NGT), an environmental court in India appealing against the UPPCB decision, citing financial losses as a reason for re-opening the plant quickly. Post three hearings, NGT has so far refuted the re-opening.

Another major hurdle the company faces is about the land it acquired for its plant. According to the Lok Samiti, the land is community owned land and cannot be used for private purposes. In December 2013, local authorities passed an order to evict Coca-Cola from the illegally occupied land but the company had obtained a stay order from court.

However, this is not the first time that Coca-Cola's bottling plant has been cloed in India. Earlier in 2004, Coca-Cola's botteling plant at Plachimada in Kerala was shut down and the company still owes $47 million in damages as a result of it's operations there. Its plant in Kala Dera, Rajasthan is also in the news with locals demanding clsoures due to rapid depletion of groundwater levels.

UPDATE:

In an email reply, an official from Coca-Cola said, its Mehdiganj plant is operating again as the NGT on 20th June has stayed the order passed by UPPCB.