How could a government that shut its eyes while a foreign multinational devastates an entire village, consistently disregards the statutory authorities, callously breaches numerous laws of the land claim to be acting in the national interest?
That’s the question which Dr S Faizi, an environmental expert has raised in a letter dated May 11, 2016 addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The protest missive to the PM has been prompted by a letter from the Union home ministry to the Kerala government informing the letter that the President has been ‘pleased to withhold’ assent to the Plachimada Coca Cola Victims Compensation Claims Tribunal Bill 2011.
The Bill was passed by the Kerala Assembly, unanimously, following the exhaustive report of the multidisciplinary High Power Committee that investigated the massive damages caused by the American company in Plachimada village, in order to elicit compensation from the recalcitrant company for the poor victims. Faizi was a member of the high power committee as an environmental expert.
The enactment of this Bill was a critical contribution in enforcing a legal regime for the sustainable management of the scarce natural resources of the country as a public resource as underlined by the recent Supreme Court judgment in the G2 scam and to remedy the deprivations suffered by the victims.
“I express my profound concern about the government action refusing Presidential assent for the Bill and at the same time express my hope that the American multinational shall be brought to justice in spite of the government’s proactive support of the unrepentant company,” said Faizi in his letter.
Full text of Faizi’s letter:
To
Shri Narendra Modi
Honourable Prime Minister
New Delhi
Subversion of the Plachimada/Compensation Bill is a glaring breach of the national interest
Honourable Prime Minister,
Can a government elected to protect India’s national sovereignty compromise on its duty by letting go a foreign multinational that has devastated a whole village of the country, consistently disregarded the statutory authorities and callously breached numerous laws of the land?
As expert member of the Plachimada High Power Committee established by the Kerala government I was shocked to see the letter from the Home Ministry to the Kerala Govt informing that the President has been ‘pleased to withhold’ assent to the Plachimada Coca Cola Victims Compensation Claims Tribunal Bill 2011.
The Bill was passed by the Kerala Assembly, unanimously, following the exhaustive report of the multidisciplinary High Power Committee that investigated the massive damages caused by the American company in Plachimada village, in order to elicit compensation from the recalcitrant company for the poor victims. This was by way of upholding Article 21 of the Constitution and in line with the polluter pays principle, and covering entirely State subjects (II under the VII Schedule), namely, health, agriculture, labor, animal husbandry, groundwater etc. The Plachimada Bill is in fulfillment of the State's obligation in terms of Article 21 as interpreted by the Supreme Court and based on the polluter pays principle that has become an integral part of our jurisprudence. The enactment of this Bill was a critical contribution in enforcing a legal regime for the sustainable management of the scarce natural resources of the country as a public resource as underlined by the recent Supreme Court judgment in the G2 scam and to remedy the deprivations suffered by the victims, and in pursuance of Article 39b of the Constitution. It fills an important legislative gap and complements the Green Tribunal Act 2010, which puts a time bar of five years for filing cases for compensation.
The desperate Cola company has challenged the Bill, through ‘legal opinion’ of their lawyers, arguing that the Kerala Assembly had no legal competence to enact the Bill as they didn’t have any valid points to raise. It is unfortunate that the Solicitor General was repeating the arguments of the Cola company, far more vigorously than the company lawyers, which were unfounded and invalid as explained in the responses submitted to the Home Ministry by the Kerala govt and myself. It was the pro-Cola interest of the UPA Home Minister Mr Chidambaram that held up the Bill from being passed on to the President for a good four years. There were intense lobbying by the Cola company and US officials of various kinds against the Bill. Yet the UPA did not have the brazenness to decline Presidential assent, but your government was too quick to act in favour of the American multinational, undermining the national interests and the Constitutional provisions.
The Cola company was challenging and threatening the High Power Committee, right from the time the HPC was established by the Kerala government, and their latest challenge was the legislative competence of the State Assembly to enact the Bill, it is the misfortune of the country that our Solicitor General is repeating a multinational company’s desperate arguments. His arguments in the ‘Ex Parte Opinion’ dated 5.11.14 constitutes an ominous challenge to the State’s powers to enact legislation on subjects in the State list to address violations of Article 21 of the Constitution, does not even refer to the replies submitted to the Home Ministry when such arguments were raised by the Cola lawyers Mr K K Venugopal and Mr Feli S Nariman in their respective legal opinions in 2011 itself. Here I am attaching, for your information, the reply I had submitted as expert member of the High Power Committee.
The gratuitous advice to approach National Green Tribunal by both the UPA and your Solicitor General is only an alibi. The company was ordered closed by the State Pollution Control Board in March 2004 and as per the NGT Act (Section 15.3) the victims should have filed the case latest by March 2009, with a grace period of six months. But the NGT Act was passed in June 2010, and NGT became operational only next year May. How could have the Plachimada victims approach the NGT that was non-existent within the time bar the law has set. The Plachimada Bill was an excellent complement to the NGT filling the temporal gap, and ensuring natural justice to the poor victims of a remote village. And your government has sabotaged it.
Like Mr Chidambaram, your government also undermines the endorsement of the Bill by all the related ministries at the Centre, namely, the ministries of agriculture, rural development, water resources, food processing industries and the Department of Justice under the Ministry of Law. Beyond categorical approval, some ministries have in fact recommended to take stronger measures than the contents of the Bill. Yet you have chosen to sabotage the Bill, in favour of American corporate interests. This rejection of the Bill also serves a blow to the time tested Center-State relations; it is deeply worrying that the Solicitor General and the government are challenging the legislative competence of the State to enact laws on subjects listed under II of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
It would be pertinent to see how the US, the home country of the Cola company, has handled the British Petroleum for accidentally spilling oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The US President ordered the payment of US $ 20 billion and the company paid the amount without serious resistance, unlike the Cola company. Our government, whether NDA or UPA, has an important lesson to learn from US- on how to protect the genuine national interest.
I express my profound concern about the government action refusing Presidential assent for the Bill and at the same time express my hope that the American multinational shall be brought to justice in spite of the government’s proactive support of the unrepentant company.
With the best regards
Sincerely,
S Faizi
See Faizi's 2011 letter to former home minister PC Chidambaram here.