Water scarcity in Prime Minister's constituency - blame it on Coca Cola

There is a scarcity of water in Varanasi district which happens to be the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the blame is put on Coca Cola which is believed to be extracting groundwater for manufacturing the drinks at the expense of villagers who are left high and dry.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 28 November 2015.

Eighteen village councils in Uttar Pradesh, involving seven blocks of Varanasi district and particularly in Arajiline block, are demanding that a local Coca-Cola bottling plant be prohibited from extracting water from the ground. The reason is that over usage has led to water scarcity in the area as indicated by an environmental campaign group. These villages are in Mehdiganj area of Varanasi district, the constituency of the Prime Minister. It seems the water scarcity has been there ever since 1999 when the plant began operations.
Coca-Cola is an international brand and is supposed to be a responsible user of water. But, they are exploiting the ground water while the women, children, farmers and livestock have to live with less water because Coca-Cola mines groundwater in a water scarce area for profit.
Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd has clarified that a 2012 study by the Central Ground Water Board into a complaint by villagers of ponds, wells and hand pumps drying up have not come across any evidence to show that the company was responsible.
In the opinion of the Central Ground Water Board, this depletion was not due to withdrawal of ground water by Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd (HCCBPL) plant. In spite of the decline, there was enough water in ponds, dug-wells and good crops of wheat and mustard were observed in the fields.

Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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