The decision was taken four days after the music video ‘Kodaikanal Won’t’ went viral transcending all boundaries and created huge outrage against company’s disregard for the lives of it’s former employees and environment.
Finally, the corporate giant Hindustan Uniliver yielded before the power of the common man and decided to clean up mercury contaminated soil in the premises of its closed thermometer factory in Kodaikanal. The decision was taken four days after the music video ‘Kodaikanal Won’t’ went viral transcending all boundaries and created huge outrage against company’s disregard for the lives of it’s former employees and environment. Followed by it, in a press release published on its website, Unilever announced that it ‘continues to take the issue very seriously and it’s one we are keen to see resolved’.
Meanwhile, the company stood stand saying its ex-employees have not been affected by mercury, even after the death of 45 workers. The press release denied this fact saying, “several expert studies have been conducted since the factory’s closure and all have concluded that our former employees did not suffer ill-health due to the nature of their work”.
At the same time, the company carefully tried to put the onus on Tamil Nadu Polution control Board (TNPCB) for the delay in clean up. “We have taken action to clean-up the soil within the factory premises and will commence the soil remediation work at the site once the final consent is given by the TNPCB”. Responding to Uniliver’s decision Nityanand Jayaraman, an environmental activist who spearheaded the Kodaikanal campaign said he welcomed company’s decision. But he pointed out that the company statement is factually wrong on many counts. He said the delay is caused due to the company’s decision to revise it’s clean up standards.
“Unilever is pushing TNPCB to issue permission for a diluted standard of 25 mg/kg – 25 times less stringent than what would be permissible in their home country of United Kingdom. The clean-up is being delayed because of Unilever’s double standards and insistence on applying a clean-up level that would be unacceptable in the United Kingdom”. “We’d like Indians to be treated at par with the British. What’s wrong with that?”, asks Jayaraman.