Shillong, April 21: Coca Cola, a multinational beverage company, has offered to return the Kerala government 35 acres of land it owns at Plachimada in the Palakkad district.
According to a Chief Minister Office statement, Juan Pablo Rodriguez Trovato, the CEO of Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Private Limited, wrote Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to advise him that the firm has decided to give the building and the surrounding property to the government.
Negotiations to release the land for the proposed farmer producer organisation (FPO), which is set to open soon and would be led by farmers, have already started with the ruling Left front.
According to the statement, the beverage business was finally prepared to relinquish the land at the commencement of talks held under former Power Minister K Krishnankutty.
In a late-night release on Thursday, the CMO stated that the company also promised to give technical assistance for the creation of a demo farm for the local farmers.
Following protests by locals who claimed the firm was exploiting groundwater and polluting the environment, Coca-Cola shut down its Plachimada facility in March 2004.