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Protest against Cola turns violent
Angry over reports of substantial quantity of pesticides getting detected in several brands of cold drinks including Pepsi and Coke , Chatra Lok Jan Shakti Party activists on Friday attacked several shops selling such drinks in Civil Lines, damaged crates and broke scores of these bottles besides burning the posters. Shouting slogans against the multinational companies manufacturing these brands a handful of youngmen first targetted a kiosk selling cold drinks .
Angry over reports of substantial quantity of pesticides getting detected in several brands of cold drinks including Pepsi and Coke , Chatra Lok Jan Shakti Party activists on Friday attacked several shops selling such drinks in Civil Lines, damaged crates and broke scores of these bottles besides burning the posters.
Shouting slogans against the multinational companies manufacturing these brands a handful of youngmen first targetted a kiosk selling cold drinks at the Civil Lines crossing and then moved towards the cinema hall in the vicinity.
From here they rushed towards the SP Marg and damaged bottles picked up by them from a famous betel shop. They also attacked another outlet next to this shop and broke dozens of bottles on the road. Traffic at Civil Lines crossing came to a virtual halt when anxious onlookers stopped to witness the act of vandalism indulged in by some youngmen.
However police soon came in and prevented this small group on rampage from causing further harm to any other shop.
It may be mentioned there have been protests at several places in the country following reports of findings of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) which has revealed presence of pesticide residues in soft drinks which were 25 to 30 times higher than the approved limit.
The activists after setting fire to a few hoardings issued a statement demanding ban on the sale of such harmful cold drinks which could cause serious health problems to the people. A fax message to the Union Health Minister A Ramdoss was also reportedly sent by them with a demand for a ban on the sale of such harmful drinks in the market.
The activists also urged the shopkeepers not to sell any of these drinks in the interest of the health of innocent public. They alleged that it amounted to slow poisoning of the people by the manufacturers of these brands. They also warned to crack down on all shops selling such drinks. The activists identified themselves as Prayag Rai,Umesh Pandey, Mohd Anees Khan, Kamal Srivastava, Arvind Soni and Yuv Raj Singh.