The move comes a day after the govt ordered the state pollution control board to shut the plant
A day after issuing a government order to permanently close down the Sterlite Copper plant at Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday cancelled the allotment of 342 acres of land for the proposed expansion of the Sterlite copper smelter plant citing public agitations expressing concern over the pollution caused by the existing unit.
In a letter to M/s Vedanta Limited dated May 29, the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (SIPCOT) said there have been a series of agitations and protest against the establishment of Copper Smelter Plant Phase-II, expressing concerns about the pollution caused by the existing plant of the Vedanta Limited.
“The people of the area have also been raising concern about their health on account of the operations of the plant. As the allotment of the land for the proposed expansion has been made by SIPCOT, in larger public interest, the land allotment made by SIPCOT for the proposed expansion of Copper Smelter Plant (Phase-II) by M/S Vedanta Limited is hereby cancelled. The land price collected for the said land allotment will be refunded as per norms of SIPCOT,” the letter signed by the SIPCOT managing director said.
The SIPCOT decision to cancel the land allotment has come a week after thousands marched towards the Thoothukudi district collector office seeking permanent closure of the Sterlite plant and immediate stoppage of the expansion works. As many as 13 people were killed in the police firing after the protest turned violent.
On Sterlite expansion, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on May 24 stayed the construction work on a public interest litigation opposing it.
On Monday, the Environment and Forest department issued a government order saying that it endorsed the closure direction of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and also directed the TNPCB to seal the unit and close the plant permanently. Vedanta termed the closure order of the Sterlite copper plant as an unfortunate development. “We will study the order and decide on the future course of action,” the company said in a statement.
The people of the port town, who have been protesting against Sterlite Industries for over two decades, had intensified their agitation in the mid - February after TNPCB issued “consent to establish” licences to the copper smelter to double its production to 800,000 metric tonnes per annum.
Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu DGP T.K. Rajendran announced that the case related to the anti- Sterlite protests would be transferred to Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID).
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