Hubballi: Acute shortage of water has compelled PepsiCo to look at shifting its operation from parched Dharwad to some other place, which has adequate supply of water.
Reportedly the plant has decided to shift its unit to Maharashtra or any other place after the Hubballi-Dharwad Corporation has stopped water supply due to decreasing water storage level in the Malaprabha reservoir.
The Corporation succumbed to pressure from the people of Dharwad who opposed water supply to the plant. The people had protested against the Corporation that even though they were provided water only once in three or four days, the plant was provided over two lakh litres of water per day.
Owing to pressure from the public the municipal authorities cut the plant’s water supply by one lakh litres.
But, the decision of the company to shift operation too has sparked a sense of uncertainty among the workers.
Workers union leader, Kamalakar Kuchinad said that over a thousand people have been working in plant for the last few decades.
“We will lose our jobs if the plant is shifted to other cities as we cannot move there with our families. So we are trying to convince the company to continue here as the rains are expected in June,” he said.
However, the company is unlikely to cancel its plans to move from Dharward as it cannot run production with present water supply.
