industry

Sterlite writes to Tamil Nadu pollution board urging to act on Supreme Court order


CHENNAI: Vedanta-owned Sterlite Copper has sought implementation of a Supreme Court order that upheld a National Green Tribunal (NGT) decision to reopen its shuttered copper smelter in southern Tamil Nadu.

People aware of the developments said Sterlite has sought permission to reopen the 4-lakh tonne a year copper smelter in a letter to the Tamil Nadu government sent on January 10, two days after the Supreme Court refused to stay the NGT order.

A Supreme Court bench of justices Rohington Fali Nariman and Navin Sinha had on January 8 ordered that the NGT order “will continue to subsist” and will be subject to the outcome of the appeal filed by the state government.

“A letter has been addressed to the TNPCB (Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board) chairman, enclosing a copy of the Supreme Court order,” an official with the pollution board said on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, Sterlite Copper had written to the pollution board seeking to implement the NGT order delivered in December, but the board had rejected the request on grounds that it had moved the Supreme Court challenging the order.

“We have not received any response from the board (TNPCB),” said a top executive with the Sterlite Copper plant. Queried if the company had filed a fresh application for licence, he said: “We had sent the letter on January 10 moving the same application we had filed in early 2018 seeking renewal of the Consent to Operate licence.”

After a five-month legal battle with the Tamil Nadu government and Thoothukudi-based activists and politicians, Sterlite Copper had secured an order from NGT directing the state pollution control board to renew the Consent to Operate licence for the factory, besides setting aside the closure order in May last year.

Sterlite Copper CEO P Ramnath, in an earlier interview, had said a renewed licence from the state pollution board was essential for reopening the factory, in spite of clear directions from the Supreme Court that the NGT order will remain in force pending further orders.





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