Coca-Cola stops production at Jaipur plant following NGO campaign against "indiscriminate" groundwater mining

By A Representative
Coca-Cola, one of the world’s premier soft drinks corporations, has stopped production at its bottling plant in Kala Dera in Jaipur, Rajasthan, with no plans to resume operations. Quoting a document in Hindi, India Resource Centre (IRC), a Global Resistance project, which campaigned against the plant, says that the plant was “disputed” as it was "indiscriminately mining groundwater."
IRC, in alliance with a local NGO, Kala Dera Sangharsh Samiti, has been campaigning against the company’s plant since 2003, accusing it of “exacerbating water shortages in the area.” In 1998, the area’s groundwater was declared as overexploited – the worst category of groundwater in India, yet Coca-Cola built a new bottling plant in 2000, IRC says an IRC communiqué.
Claims IRC, one of the reasons for the recent decision to stop production at the plant is, it had begun incurring financial losses. “Now it will serve solely as a storage and distribution center, according to a petition filed by the company”, it adds.
Accusing Coca Cola for “irresponsible business practices in Kala Dera”, IRC says, groundwater mining in the water scarce area, aggravating water shortages for the farmers and residents, all of which is “well documented.”
“In 2014, Dr Aneel Karnani of the University of Michigan's Stephen M Ross School of Business found Coca-Cola’s corporate social responsibility claims around its bottling plant in Kala Dera in India to be lacking merit”, says IRC. He concluded that the company’s extraction of groundwater in the water stressed area has led to the “tragedy of the commons”, it adds.
In 2008, Coca-Cola paid for an assessment of some of its bottling plants in India, including Kala Dera. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), which conducted the study, recommended that Coca-Cola shut down its Kala Dera plant.
IRC quotes TERI as saying, “The plant's operations in this area would continue to be one of the contributors to a worsening water situation and a source of stress to the communities around.” However, it adds, “Coca-Cola ignored the recommendation.”
“We have campaigned for shutting the plant and we welcome the closure”, said Mahesh Yogi of the Kala Dera Sangharsh Samiti, a local group that has led the campaign. “However, Coca-Cola must also be held accountable for the damages it has caused to the farmers, to the watershed and to the community”.
“We have always known that Coca-Cola’s plant in Kala Dera would shut down one day because it would run out of water, as it has now. We would have preferred that Coca-Cola should have acted responsibly and never operated in a highly water stressed area”, added Amit Srivastava of IRC.
Srivastava demands, “Coca-Cola and its investors must take responsibility for the depleted watershed and the financial loss to farmers because of the company’s complete lack of respect for the communities’ right to water which has led to the tragedy of the commons.”
He adds, “Allowing Coca-Cola to just walk away after completely devastating the groundwater resources is not ethical, sets a bad precedent and the company must be held to account.”
Meanwhile, IRC says, Coca-Cola continues to face crisis in India due to its “mismanagement" of water resources, including the forced closure of their bottling plant by government authorities in Kerala in 2005, and closure of its 15-year-old plant in Varanasi."

Comments

Grueling summer ahead: Cuttack’s alarming health trends and what they mean for Odisha

By Sudhansu R Das The preparation to face the summer should begin early in Odisha. People in the state endure long, grueling summer months starting from mid-February and extending until the end of October. This prolonged heat adversely affects productivity, causes deaths and diseases, and impacts agriculture, tourism and the unorganized sector. The social, economic and cultural life of the state remains severely disrupted during the peak heat months.

Stronger India–Russia partnership highlights a missed energy breakthrough

By N.S. Venkataraman* The recent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India was widely publicized across several countries and has attracted significant global attention. The warmth with which Mr. Putin was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was particularly noted, prompting policy planners worldwide to examine the implications of this cordial relationship for the global economy and political climate. India–Russia relations have stood on a strong foundation for decades and have consistently withstood geopolitical shifts. This is in marked contrast to India’s ties with the United States, which have experienced fluctuations under different U.S. administrations.

From natural farming to fair prices: Young entrepreneurs show a new path

By Bharat Dogra There have been frequent debates on agro-business companies not showing adequate concern for the livelihoods of small farmers. Farmers’ unions have often protested—generally with good reason—that while they do not receive fair returns despite high risks and hard work, corporate interests that merely process the crops produced by farmers earn disproportionately high profits. Hence, there is a growing demand for alternative models of agro-business development that demonstrate genuine commitment to protecting farmer livelihoods.

The Vande Mataram debate and the politics of manufactured controversy

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The recent Vande Mataram debate in Parliament was never meant to foster genuine dialogue. Each political party spoke past the other, addressing its own constituency, ensuring that clips went viral rather than contributing to meaningful deliberation. The objective was clear: to construct a Hindutva narrative ahead of the Bengal elections. Predictably, the Lok Sabha will likely expunge the opposition’s “controversial” remarks while retaining blatant inaccuracies voiced by ministers and ruling-party members. The BJP has mastered the art of inserting distortions into parliamentary records to provide them with a veneer of historical legitimacy.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

The cost of being Indian: How inequality and market logic redefine rights

By Vikas Gupta We, the people of India, are engaged in a daily tryst—read: struggle—for basic human rights. For the seemingly well-to-do, the wish list includes constant water supply, clean air, safe roads, punctual public transportation, and crime-free neighbourhoods. For those further down the ladder, the struggle is starker: food that fills the stomach, water that doesn’t sicken, medicines that don’t kill, houses that don’t flood, habitats at safe distances from polluted streams or garbage piles, and exploitation-free environments in the public institutions they are compelled to navigate.

Why India must urgently strengthen its policies for an ageing population

By Bharat Dogra A quiet but far-reaching demographic transformation is reshaping much of the world. As life expectancy rises and birth rates fall, societies are witnessing a rapid increase in the proportion of older people. This shift has profound implications for public policy, and the need to strengthen frameworks for healthy and secure ageing has never been more urgent. India is among the countries where these pressures will intensify most sharply in the coming decades.

Thota Sitaramaiah: An internal pillar of an underground organisation

By Harsh Thakor* Thota Sitaramaiah was regarded within his circles as an example of the many individuals whose work in various underground movements remained largely unknown to the wider public. While some leaders become visible through organisational roles or media attention, many others contribute quietly, without public recognition. Sitaramaiah was considered one such figure. He passed away on December 8, 2025, at the age of 65.

Proposals for Babri Masjid, Ram Temple spark fears of polarisation before West Bengal polls

By A Representative A political debate has emerged in West Bengal following recent announcements about plans for new religious structures in Murshidabad district, including a proposed mosque to be named Babri Masjid and a separate announcement by a BJP leader regarding the construction of a Ram temple in another location within Behrampur.

Search This Blog