Environmental activists, write to Stalin
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Stop Vedanta’s unit from reopening, scrap highway projects and nuclear plants are their demands
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Stop Vedanta’s unit from reopening, scrap highway projects and nuclear plants are their demands
Various organisations and prominent personalities, including director Vetrimaran, actor Vijay Sethupathi, former Madras High Court judge (retd) D. Hariparanthaman, have written to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister-designate M.K. Stalin to not allow the Vedanta copper smelter unit to be reopened, scrap the Chennai-Salem 8-lane highway project and the additional four proposed Kudankulam nuclear plants, among other environment-related issues.
They also requested the CM-designate to prosecute the directors of the Vedanta copper smelter unit, scrap the Adani port expansion at Kattupalli, the Kanniyakumari International Container Terminal, the Chittoor-Thachur 6-lane expressway, and withdraw the AIADMK government’s request
India Covid crisis: Widespread protests over opening of Tamil Nadu oxygen plant
Web report/Thoothukudi
Photo: Reuters
The plant was shut down about three years ago, after 13 people protesting its operations, were killed in police firing.
The decision to allow Vedanta-owned Sterlite Copper’s oxygen plant to operate has resulted in widespread protests in Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, as local residents especially relatives of those killed in the a May 2018 incident involving police firing stand vehemently opposed to it.
The Anti-Sterlite People’s Confederation, which is among those spearheading the protests, observed a ‘black day’ on Thursday, protesting the government’s decision to reopen the plant.
‘Many parties, anti-Sterlite groups not invited to govt. meet’
The Anti-Sterlite People’s Confederation has appealed to the residents of the port town to observe a ‘Black Day’ on Thursday as a mark of protest against the Supreme Court permitting Sterlite Copper’s oxygen plant to operate.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday after submitting a petition to the Collector, advocate Hari Raghavan of the confederation said Sterlite Copper, exploiting the pandemic, had used the Supreme Court to reopen its premises in the guise of producing oxygen.
Unfortunately, a section of parties in Tamil Nadu had taken a unilateral decision in favour of opening the oxygen plant, while parties like the MDMK, Makkal Needhi Maiam, VCK, Naam Tamilar Katchi and other anti-Sterlite groups were not invited for the all-party meeting, which was chaired by the Chief Minister.
Thoothukudi, India – She spearheaded a decades-long campaign against a copper smelter over alleged environmental contamination in the south Indian seaside town of Thoothukudi.
Sterlite Copper, the Indian subsidiary of Vedanta Resources, a global mining and metals conglomerate, was forced to shut its plant in 2018, thanks to a sustained and spirited fight led by 67-year-old teacher-turned activist Fatima Babu.
The plant’s shuttering, said Fatima, “has boosted the morale of the townspeople, which is a very very big thing for us”. “But we would want Sterlite to pay for the damage it has done.”
On May 22, 2018, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Thoothukudi against a proposed expansion of Sterlite’s 400,000-tonne annual capacity smelter, but the police opened fire, killing at least 13 protesters. It was the deadliest environmental protest of the year in the country. The police justified their action saying the protesters pelted stones and burned their