NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party has urged the government to stop the US multinational company Pepsi Cola from setting up its soft drink and potato chips plant in Punjab until a complete review of the project was carried out.
Ina letter to the Union Minister for Food Processing, Mr Sharad Yadav, the BJP general secretary, Mr Krishanlal Sharma, said that the objective of bringing in a horticulture revolution in Punjab by allowing the multinational company to set up a soft drinks and potato chips plant had become doubtful as the company had plans to bring fruits and even potato and corn from outside Punjab which was against what they had projected in their application.
The BJP leader pointed out that the company’s promise that the project would generate 500,000 jobs was not true and the project would not create even 1,000 jobs thus depriving the state’s farmers and general public of any benefits. “It is very clear that Punjab has been forgotten and was only used to get their proposal approved, “The letter said.
The BJP, Mr Sharma said, had “strongly opposed” the approval given to Pepsi Cola by the previous government.
“Our party stands for self-reliance and want to foster the spirit of ‘Swadeshi’, “the letter said. “We strongly feel that the multinationals should be kept out of the field of consumer industries.”
Mr Sharma said that Pepsi Cola were getting ready to destroy the indigenous industry by their foreign brand names would be used on domestic sales. He said if competition was required; let this be done by Indian companies and not by a multinational monopoly which operated in 150 countries.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 9, 1990
