The Big Story: Clean-up act

The Tamil Nadu government on Monday issued orders to permanently close Vedanta’s Sterlite copper smelter in Thoothukudi. This came a week after 13 people were shot by the police during a massive agitation against the unit on May 22. The town had been protesting against the plant for decades, accusing Vedanta of causing water and air pollution that posed a serious health hazard to residents.

The excessive force by the police has brought the credibility of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government to its lowest point. To redeem itself of the charge that it was acting like a puppet of a global corporation, the government was left with no option but to take decisive action.

Advertisement

However, the text of the government order closing the plant does not inspire much confidence. In fact, the order is redundant because the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has already refused to renew its consent to the plant to operate and had cut off its electricity and water supply. This government order only reiterates what the board has done and is at best a public relations measure.

But here lies the problem. Activists have pointed out that the reasons provided by the pollution control board to shut the plant are minor at best and ignore the major allegations against Vedanta. Many of the factors cited by the agency for shutting down the plant could easily have been remedied. However, the substantial changes that would require technological additions at high cost have not been even mentioned. These include a proper green corridor, higher chimney stacks and changes to the factory layout to reclaim occupied land outside the industrial complex, activists said. Should this order be challenged in court, it could quite easily be overturned, they fear.

Worse, the government has said nothing about making the polluter pay for the hazards it has caused. In 2013, the Supreme Court ordered Sterlite to pay a fine of Rs 100 crore for its violations. The government has not been willing to provide details of how this fund was used.

Advertisement

If the state government is really serious about acting against Vendanta, it should widen its investigations, conduct scientific studies on the impact of the plant on the town and ensure that the polluter pays for the violations.

The Big Scroll

  • Why shutting down Sterlite’s polluting copper factory in Thoothukudi is only a small victory.   
  • Two days after police kill 13 anti-Sterlite protestors in Thoothukudi, sorrow and anger fill the air.   

Punditry

  1. Message of Cobrapost sting: Media subservience to power, its contempt for citizen, says Pratap Bhanu Mehta in Indian Express. 
  2.   Protecting constitutional values requires an independent judiciary. For this, three issues need attention, argues Suhrith Parthasarathy in The Hindu. 
  3. With a US-China trade war likely, India must reposition itself as an investment destination, writes Shyam Saran in the Hindustan Times. 

Giggles

Don’t miss

Nine days after detecting Nipah, Kerala is yet to nail the carrier of the deadly virus.

“The animal husbandry department is facing fire for ‘confusing the public’ about the origin of the deadly outbreak. On May 25, the department released the test results of samples collected from insect-eating bats found in the well of a family in Soopikkada which has lost four members to Nipah. The tests, conducted at the Bhopal laboratory, returned negative for Nipah and many local TV news channels went to town claiming that bats were not the carriers of the virus.”