India Infoline News Service / 10:22 AM - 29-Sep-2010
The court in its order also directed the Tuticorin District Collector to take necessary steps for re-employment of the workforce in some other companies so as to protect their livelihood
The Madras high court here directed Sterlite Industries, to close its copper smelting facility at Tuticorin (Thoothukudi), 580 km from here in southeast Tamil Nadu.
The order follows a petition, filed in 1998, challenging the environmental clearance given to the unit. The petitioners included the National Trust for Clean Environment and the MDMK, CPI(M) and CPI political parties. They demanded to know how such a unit could be established within 25 km of the environmentally fragile zone of the Gulf of Mannar. The mandatory public hearing wasn't conducted, said G Ramapriya, advocate for the Trust, and later pollution control instructions weren't heeded.
A Division Bench of Justices Elipe Dharmaro and N Paul Vasanthakumar held that the plant was within 25 km of an ecologically fragile area and the company has failed to develop a green belt of 250 metre width around the plant.
The court in its order also directed the Tuticorin District Collector to take necessary steps for re-employment of the workforce in some other companies so as to protect their livelihood, to the extent possible, keeping in view their educational and technical qualifications and experience.
The order came a month after the Vedanta Group's Rs70bn bauxite mining project at Niyamgiri hills in Orissa was denied environmental clearance. The company was also issued a show cause notice by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for allegedly flouting green norms.
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