30 lakh liters of Narmada water to Cola: Why waste water in Gujarat, Maharashtra and MP, asks Patkar

By A Representative
Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar has strongly objected to the Gujarat government move to provide whopping 30 lakh litres per day of Narmada water to the proposed Coca Cola plant to come up in Sanand region in Ahmedabad district. In a statement, Patkar has said, the Rs 500 crore Coca Cola plant in Sanand, being set up in an area next to the Tatas’ Nano plant, will be provided with Narmada water over and above 90 lakh litres per day of water which has already been “committed” to be provided to industrialists in Sanand, an upcoming industrial area.
At present two major manufacturing units in Sanand – Nano and Ford – are being provided with 20 lakh litres of Narmada water, Patkar said, underlining, the development suggests what is the “basic idea behind the Sardar Sarovar project.” The Gujarat government decision to give 30 lakh litres of Narmada waters to Coca Cola comes at a time when, Patkar added, already “many public protests are happening against the company’s plants across India.” In fact, Coca Cola has been “criticized world over for exploiting the ground water resources."

According a report, state government has allotted 1.85 lakh square meters of land to Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd (HCCBPL), the largest bottling partner of Coca-Cola Company in India. "This plant will manufacture soft-drinks like Coke, Sprite, Fanta and Thumbs Up within an industrial cluster which is a no-effluent zone", the report stated. The Gujarat government has not contradicted the report, which quotes a senior official to substantiate its information.

Patkar said, “The Sardar Sarovar project was pushed in the name of providing Narmada water to the drought stricken parts of North Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch. This resulted into the submergence of villages, high yielding farms, temples and mosques, and forests of the tribal people in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. After such huge losses, now the government is trying to befool people and has planned to provide precious water to Coca Cola, a consumer goods manufacturing company.”

Accusing the Gujarat government of making “a policy shift” away from the promise to provide water, with prime agricultural land being handed over to industrialists, Patkar said, what is worse is, “the state government has started the allotment of 4 lakh hectare (ha) land around the Sardar Sarovar dam for non-agricultural purposes.” This act of the state government, she added, will “change the basic purpose of the project, yet it is not being questioned by either the Maharashtra or the Madhya Pradesh government.”
All this is happening at a time when, Patkar said, “according to the documents furnished by the government, the total cost of the Sardar Sarovar Project has increased from Rs 4,200 crore to Rs 90,000 crore. Some 40-45,000 families, living in the submerged area around the Sardar Sarovar, are still waiting for their rehabilitation. An inquiry commission, headed by Justice Shravan Shankar Jha, is still probing into the reckless behaviour of the government in rehabilitation of these people and massive corruption in the whole process.”
Pointing out that all this is happening at a time when the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, is already in force, Patkar said, the displaced people should be treated as village natives, who should continue to be in possession of their land. “This is one of the reasons why effort to displace these people is unlawful”, she added.

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

May the Earth Be Auspicious: Vedic ecology and contemporary crisis in Ashok Vajpeyi’s poetry

By Ravi Ranjan* Ashok Vajpeyi, born in 1941, occupies a singular position in contemporary Hindi poetry as a poet whose work quietly but decisively reorients modern literary consciousness toward ethical, ecological, and civilizational questions. Across more than six decades of writing, Vajpeyi has forged a poetic idiom marked by restraint, philosophical attentiveness, and moral seriousness, resisting both rhetorical excess and ideological simplification.

Search This Blog