New Delhi: Two leading cola manufacturers have been found illegally extracting groundwater from the land at their respective manufacturing plants located in Uttar Pradesh. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently imposed a fine of Rs 25 crore on PepsiCo and Coca-Cola for doing so.
Moon Beverages (Coca-Cola) and Varun Beverages (PepsiCo) have been accused of breaking the terms of their licences by failing to meet their requirements to recharge groundwater, besides continued extraction of groundwater after the expiration of the NOC, India Today reported.
The panel, comprising NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, Sudhir Agarwal and Brajesh Sethi as judicial members and Professor A Senthil Well and Dr Afroz Ahmed as additional experts, imposed a fine of Rs 1.85 crore on the Greater Noida plant and Rs 13.24 million on Sahibabad plant of Coca-Cola and Rs 9.71 crore on Pepsi’s Greater Noida plant.
The NGT has asked the Union Ministry of Forests and Environment, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Central Pollution Control Board, Central Ground Water Tribunal, Uttar Pradesh Ground Water Department and district officers to strictly implement the measures to recharge groundwater by visiting with a team of experts, the report added.
