UP plant has all necessary permits, licences: Coca-Cola

Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages on Friday said its bottling plant in Uttar Pradesh operates with all necessary permits and licences and has never been faulted by the state pollution agency for affluent discharge.

Responding to reports of the National Green Tribunal sending a notice over alleged alarming reports, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages said it had "voluntarily impleaded as a party in the matter on December 11, and sought time to file our response to the Central Pollution Control Board, UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) reports before the next date of hearing on January 14, 2016."

The firm said it operates a bottling plant in UPSIDC Masuri-Gulawathi Road Industrial Area since 1999 "under all requisite government licences, registrations, and approvals, including those in relation to air, water, and hazardous waste, and since the start of operations of the plant, all treated effluents generated by the plant are in line with the prescribed standards."

"UPPCB has been conducting sampling of treated water from the Effluent Treatment Plant discharge periodically and we have not received any complaints from UPPCB indicating failure of samples with respect to prescribed standards," the company said in a statement.

Also, UPPCB had also carried out independent sampling and inspection of the pond water and the treated effluent from our plant. "The report of the same, filed to the National Green Tribunal in August, stated that both the pond-water samples and the sewage/effluents discharged by the plant were meeting standards," it added.