Coca-Cola Misleading Shareholders In India

Coca-Cola Misleading Shareholders on Financial and Criminal Liabilities in India

April 19, 2010

WHAT: The Coca-Cola Company will be holding its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 in Atlanta. The shareholders will be warned, again, that the Coca-Cola Company management is being derelict in its duties by not disclosing the critical financial and criminal liabilities the company has incurred and continues to incur in India as a result of its bottling operations. Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center will be speaking at the shareholders meeting.

On March 22, 2010, a high-level committee appointed by the state government of Kerala recommended that Coca-Cola be held liable for US$ 48 million in damages caused to the community and the environment in Plachimada. The recommended compensation does not include damages as a result of depleted groundwater. The Coca-Cola bottling plant in Plachimada has been shut down since March 2004 due to state government orders and vibrant community opposition. The high-level committee has also reiterated the case for holding the Coca-Cola Company liable criminally.

The Coca-Cola Company has also continued to operate in Kala Dera in the state of Rajasthan, a drought-prone area that has been experiencing severe water shortages since Coca-Cola began operations in the area. The government had declared the area's groundwater as "over-exploited" in 1998 yet the Coca-Cola company built a new plant in 2000. The Coca-Cola Company refuses to share the Environmental Impact Assessment it says it conducted prior to building and operating the plant in Kala Dera. A study commissioned by the Coca-Cola Company and conducted by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in 2008 recommended that the bottling plant be shut down or relocated or bring in water for production from outside the area. The Coca-Cola company has decided to ignore the recommendations of its own study, choosing instead to operate even as Kala Dera (and India) faced its worst drought in the last 40 years in 2009. Activists have vowed to shut down the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kala Dera.

WHERE: Gwinnett Center, Grand Ballroom, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth, GA

WHEN: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 9:00 am

WHO: The India Resource Center < www.IndiaResource.org> coordinates the international campaign to hold Coca-Cola accountable for its abuses in India.

ENDS

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