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Compassion wherever there is suffering. Conviction that the compassion is strong enough to eliminate suffering. Courage to make this conviction a reality. This is AID.

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Update from the Dharna in Mehendiganj

Phone Conversation with Nandlal on March 25, 2006

Nandlal:

“The dharna started on March 23, 2006. On the first day, about 400 villagers made it to the dharna. These 400 people were from Mehendiganj and other neighbouring villages as well.

On the first day 3 managers from the Coca Cola Delhi and Mehdiganj came to talk to the protestors. They were Kalyan Ranjan, General Manager Sarat Kumar and Area Manager Chitwal(?) Singh. The Coke officials mentioned that they had invited the villagers to talk with them many times before as well. But since the company was never ready to hold public talk with the villagers, the we had refused to talk to them in earlier instances. This time they held public talks. They spoke on the 6 demands of the Dharna.

As far as water is concerned, the coke officials claimed that the water level has infact increased since the coke plant has been set up in the village. We protested this and mentioned that wells and hand pumps are drying out. Around 7-8 villagers came up and spoke about how the water levels in their wells were lower and that their hand pumps have dried up. The coke officials claimed that this is a continuous cycle. The officials mentioned that previously 1989, 95, 99, 2000 and 2003 (I could be wrong on the exact years mentioned by the officers but you get the point) the water levels had gone down and come up in the area. They insisted that this was due to the monsoons and depending on the amount of rain each year the ground water levels keep changing. They claimed that the coke plant is not responsible for the decreased water level. The officials then asked them why they don't protest against farmers who pull out lots of water. We mentioned that the farmers are using the water for their need, but coke is using these high amounts of water just for it's own profit. Coke officials then spoke about their Rain Water Harvesting(RWH) structures. They claimed that in Rajasthan, they generate more water through their RWH structures than they pull out from the ground for the company usage. We said that if this is true then why doesn't coke just use the harvested water and leave the villagers water alone. And then coming to the problem in Mehendiganj, the protesters mentioned that they use 25 lakh lit of water everyday, so does the RWH structure harvest that amount of water?? Coca Cola claimed that the company uses only 5 lakh lit of water everyday and the RWH harvested 70 lakh lit of water per year. The villagers then pointed out that even if we go by the numbers from coca cola the harvested water only covers 14 days of your usage, the rest of the year the company uses water of the people. The company agreed to install more water harvesting projects around the Mehendiganj area. The protesters then said that there is no guarantee that Coke will pull out only 5 Lakh lit of water every day, they might use more than that if there sales go up. There is no guarantee that RWH structures to cover their expected water usage.

The next issue they spoke about was the encroachment of the Panchayat/village land. The officials claimed that this is not true and asked for proof to be shown. We showed the court order than had asked coke to return the village land. Coke then mentioned that it had bought 6.25 acres of land from the farmers in the region but currently it has only 6.10 acres. The villagers mentioned that if coke has not received all the land it purchased then it should talk to the farmer who sold the land, instead they have been sitting on the village and panchayat common land. The inquiry report by the DM had asked coke to return the land or provide alternative land to the village.

The next issue we spoke about was the pesticide content in the beverages made by coke. The CSE report had found that there were five different kinds of pesticides in the drinks and these were harmful to health. They said that future reports have found that there were only four kinds of pesticides and not five. But there were still four harmful pesticides in the drinks, instead of talking about those Coke wished to talk about the one that was not found.

The coca cola officials welcomed all the protesters to Mehendiganj!! This agitated us. Who is coke to welcome us in our own village. These are our villages and Coca Cola is invited by the villagers to our village to listen to our demands.

Coke then mentioned that they are interested in working with the organizations in their different programs. Sandeep Pandey has a big organization and they are willing to work on various programs for entertainment and other issues.

The villagers demands have been to stop taking their water and if possible close down your factory and leave the Mehendiganj. The coca cola officials are willing to talk about anything but water. We then talked about the dumping of sludge and waste water in the agriculture fields. Coke said that the farmers had asked for it. The farmers were not told the complete truth. Coca cola has been projecting the waste water as fertilizers. If the farmers had been made aware of the pollution that would be caused by the sludge they would not have asked for it. Coke mentioned that it did not see any sort of pollution and can see a lot of greenery in the surrounding areas. The DM inquiry report mentions that farmers have lost their fields and their harvest due to the pollution and the mango trees are not giving out the fruits anymore. Coke has not even returned the money to cover for the loss of harvest by farmers due to the sludge dumping. Sandeep Pandey also mentioned that in Plachimada they had found high levels of Cadmium and Lead in the sludge but the company has not taken any quality control measure to reduce these levels. Therefore it is highly possible that the sludge in Mehendiganj has similar pollutants. Coke did not have any reply for this allegation. They said that they are currently not generating any sludge. But how is that possible, it is the same process - they now dump the waste in their ground in the plant premises.

The 2nd day had 59 people mostly from the village of Midanpuri (not sure of the name) and the third day had 78 people from the village of Dainipuri (not sure of the name). Today is the third day of the dharna. Tomorrow people from the village of Kalipur (again not sure of the name) will be protesting.

They have arranged it in such a way that each day people from a different village will sit on the Dharna. No government officials have come and spoken with the protesters. Everyday a person from the LIO office comes and notes down the number of people sitting in the dharna and what their demands are. But there is no other form of communication with the government officials. The coke officials came and spoke to the protesters on the first day. The remaining days they have been holding public meetings, performing cultural programs and distributing pamphlets in other villages. They have gained extensive support from the people of neighboring villages as well.

Tomorrow a person from IIT will be coming to talk to the workers. All the workers are on contract basis and are not being paid the minimum wages.

Coca Cola claimed that they will be setting up a RWH structure in a Central Jail 25 Km from Mehendiganj. How will it be useful if they take out water from Mehendiganj and then harvest water 25 Km from the village? Earlier Coke had claimed that it started a hospital in a nearby village some years ago, but right now the hospital is non functional. They claim that it was a lie to weaken the protest of the villagers. The villagers will not believe in the company anymore because they have lied may times before.

Moving forward the protest is not asking for any demands from the Coca Cola company. Their protest is against the government. The protesters are agitated that no government official has offered to hold public talks yet. What kind of a democracy do we live in? There are so many people making demands from the government in a silent non violent manner but there has been no response. In a few days if they still do not hear back from the government a section of them plan to protest outside the District Magistrate Head Quarters. We are not interested in talking to the Coca Cola company at all unless they stop taking water. The company wants to reach a middle ground in negotiations, but the protesters have decided there is no use of dialog. The people are agitated on the water issue. It is a matter of our rights. We do not believe that water should be sold for profit.”

In the end Nandlal ji mentioned that he would like for us to call him every other day and keep a blog of the updates. They have also been publishing articles in the local newspaper.

When I called Nandlal ji, he also mentioned that he wasn't feeling too well. While he refused to tell me the problem, he mentioned that the running around to various villages and high temperatures, probably resulting in dehydration and tiredness. I am sure there are others in the camp who are not doing too well. But that doesn't dampen the enthusiasm of the protesters and they are planning to continue the dharna till their demands are met. Nandlal ji also mentioned that they are also working on educating the villagers on various water conservation methods.