‘External forces’ were responsible for creating problems at Thoothukudi in February 2018 and that eventually led to the closure of the Sterlite Copper smelter plant in May that year after 13 protesters were killed in a police firing, a senior company official said.

“There was no pollution, and the plant’s operations were normal then. However, external forces created problems and they were mainly opposing the plant’s expansion,” said A Sumathi, COO, Sterlite Copper.

“We should have control over the external forces,” she added. She, however, did not throw more light and what she meant by external forces. Many of the companies are shut and industries are coming to a standstill due to these forces with vested interest. This is disrupting the State’s economy, and also the country, she told newspersons.

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Sumathi claimed ‘external forces’ started assembling in Thoothukudi a few months before the protests erupted. “Everybody who was there during the protests knows this,” she said. “The government has been addressing this and investigations are happening on the ground. We will wait for the reports to speak for themselves,” she added.

Expansion plan

Explaining the genesis of the problem, Sumathi said the company wanted to double the plant’s capacity to 8 lakh tonnes. The information on this went to the stock exchanges in November 2017. In February 2018, international NGOs started coming to Thoothukudi and mingled with local NGOs and people. “. On March 23, they came on to the streets to oppose the expansion programme and on April 9 we were denied the consent to renewal of the existing plant.

The entire protest was to oppose the expansion and had nothing to do with the plant's operations and it was running normally,” she said. There were complaints on gas emission and water contamination before 2013, but not after that. These were investigated and found that the company was not any way responsible, and the documents were produced before the court, she claimed.

The smelter plant was one of the safest. The SO2 to SO3 conversion in the sulphuric acid plant is at 99.9 per cent, the second best in the world. The plant has adopted all international norms and used the right technologies, she said.

Anna University report

A report by Anna University in 2019 on Source Apportionment study revealed that the biggest concern of pollution in Thoothukudi was not due to sulphur-di-oxide but it was due to dust — particulate matter. The reason attributed for the dust level was due to movement on road and power plants. However, this report was never made public or submitted to the court, she claimed.

Sumathi said the company was open for discussions with the State government and to implement the recommendations given by them. “We are open to dialogue for the betterment of our operations. There should be a constructive dialogue process,” she added.