PALAKKAD: The LDF Government's decision to sanction a brewery in Palakkad's Elapully panchayat in Malampuzha block, which has been declared a critical zone by the Kerala State Groundwater Department, to manufacture five lakh hecto litres of beer per annum has exposed the CPM's double standard with regard to the water guzzling industry in the state.
While the CPM-ruled Pudussery panchayat had time and again issued notice to the Pepsi unit at Kanjikode to stop operations in the summer months till June, decision by the adjacent Ellapully panchayat, also ruled by the party, to give go-ahead to Appollo Distilleries and Breweries Pvt Ltd to set up its brewery is drawing criticism.
The move has come at a time when the controversy with regard to sanctioning of the three breweries and one distillery is putting the government under pressure, with the Opposition alleging graft.
The LDF Government has strangely overlooked the fact that the factory is to come up in a critical zone. It might be recalled that local MLA and senior CPM leader V S Achuthanandan himself had led an agitation against the Pepsi unit, following public complaint that it was leading to scarcity of drinking water.
"We haven't received any application, even though some people came and informed about the setting up of the brewery and distillery unit. The factory is proposed to come up in the land of the Victory Paper and Boards India Limited (at Mannukad in Elapully), which had declared a lockout in 2009 due to labour strife," said Elapully panchayat president Thankamani.