Maoist protesters forced a shutdown of the Pepsi bottling plant owned by India’s Ravi Jaipuria Group, demanding pay hike, in an re-emergence of threat to Indian-owned industries.
The agitation by the Maoists has also forced the Indian company to put on hold expansion plans in the country after Maoist-affiliated trade unions stopped operations in the factory.
After shutting down petrol pumps across the country for five days and threatening to shut down hotels, the pro-Maoist trade union has now targeted multinational companies such as Varun Beverage, that produces Pepsi.
The Maoist backed trade union activists have demanded an increase in salary and allowances from the management of Pepsi and forced closure of the manufacturing plant of Pepsi since last Friday.
After the incident, Indian national Ravi Jaipuria, chairman of R J Corps that owns Varun Beverage, had to rush to Kathmandu to resolve the labour problem.
The Maoist workers didn’t allow him to enter his own factory in Bhaktapur district in the east of Kathmandu. A frustrated Jaipuria told reporters he had put on hold new investment plans till the labour situation improved.
R J Corps has just launched KFC and Pizza Hut in Kathmandu and has huge expansion plans. KFC was a hot cake as during the opening, nearly one hundred people queued outside the restaurant, situated at Durbarmarg.
