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The Tamil Nadu government on Monday issued an order to permanently shut down Sterlite’s copper plant in the port town of Thoothukudi, a week after 15 people protesting against the factory were killed in police firing.
Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami said in a statement that the decision to seal the plant was taken in the interest of the people.
The plant, which has been in existence for 22 years, has the capacity to produce 4 lakh tonnes of copper annually. Sterlite employs 3,500 people at the unit, has invested ₹2,500 crore in it, and had announced an expansion of ₹3,000 crore in September 2008 to double the capacity.
The Government Order issued on Monday drew from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board’s (TNPCB) decision not to renew the ‘consent to operate’ for the smelter unit. TNPCB’s consent had expired on March 31, 2018, and on May 23, the pollution watchdog issued directions for disconnection of power supply to the Sterlite unit.
“Under Section 8(1)(b) of the Water Act, 1974, the government, in the larger public interest, endorses the closure direction of the TNPCB and also directs the TNPCB to seal the unit and close the plant permanently,” says the order issued by Mohammed Nasimuddin, Principal Secretary to the Tamil Nadu Government.
Chief Minister Palaniswami said the decision to permanently seal the plant was taken after meeting the anti-Sterlite protesters on Monday morning, and after consultations with Cabinet colleagues and senior officials of the government.
For Sterlite, which claims it has adhered to every rule in the book, and blames its current woes to vested interests, things turned for the worse when protests in Thoothukudi turned violent last week, resulting in the death of 15 people after police opened fire. It was hoping for quick relief from the TNPCB’s Appellate Authority, to which it had appealed against the State pollution body’s decision to withhold the ‘consent to operate’. It is not clear if that appeal has any merit now.
Sterlite might also consider the legal route. In a recent interview, P Ramnath, CEO, Sterlite Copper, told BusinessLine: “We are ready to go up to the Supreme Court as was done in the past, and fight it out till the last.”
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