No approval for liquor company's water supply: Roshy Augustine
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Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Water Resources Minister Roshy Augustine said on Monday that no permission has been granted to supply water to a private firm setting up a brewery plant in Palakkad.
Augustine said that no permission was granted to supply water from the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) water supply project in Palakkad to Oasis Company. This response came after Congress MLAs M Vincent, T J Vinod, C R Mahesh, and Rahul Mamkoottathil questioned whether the Superintending Engineer of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) had given permission for the water supply.
The government's approval for Oasis Commercial Pvt Ltd to set up a brewery plant in Palakkad's Elappully panchayat has sparked criticism from the Congress-led UDF opposition, citing corruption allegations and concerns over water scarcity and groundwater exploitation.
The Water Resources Minister revealed that the Superintending Engineer's office in Palakkad had issued a letter suggesting that water availability for the company's ethanol production could be explored through the industrial water supply project being built for KINFRA. This letter was in response to the company's Expression of Interest (EOI) for ethanol production for public-sector oil companies. Notably, KINFRA already supplies 10 MLD of water daily for industrial purposes, an agreement that was established during the tenure of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in 2015.
"The Water Authority has not made any decision to supply water to the liquor company from the KINFRA water supply project against the government order issued in 2015," the reply stated.
According to the Water Resources Minister's reply, the Superintending Engineer's letter proposed examining the possibility of sourcing water from the 10 MLD industrial drinking water project for KINFRA Industrial Park.
Meanwhile, Excise Minister M B Rajesh stated that the proposed brewery unit will not lead to water scarcity in the region.
(inputs from PTI)