The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ordered the London-based Vedanta Group to stop construction of the second unit of the Sterlite Copper plant at Thoothukudi. This comes a day after nine people were killed in police firing following outbreak of violence at a protest demonstration against the company.

Two more people were killed in another round of clashes on Wednesday between police and protesters, taking the toll to 11.

Panel appointed

The Tamil Nadu government has appointed an inquiry commissioned headed by retired judge Aruna Jagadeesan to investigate the violence, which erupted when over 20,000 protesters marched towards the District Collectorate despite Section 144 being in force.

The order by the Division Bench of Justice M Sundar and Justice Anitha Sumanth directed Vedanta to cease construction and other activities on-site at the proposed Unit-II of the copper smelting plant with immediate effect.

The Bench also directed the Centre to hold a public hearing before granting environment clearance to the plant within four months, on or before September 23.

The order was given on a PIL filed by R Fatima of Thoothukudi against Sterlite’s application for renewal of environmental clearance for the second plant, which when completed, would double its annual copper-refining capacity to 800,000 tonnes. The project cost was nearly ₹3,000 crore.

The PIL said the company obtained environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests for the second copper smelter plant in 2009. This was renewed in 2015 and 2016 by “misrepresenting” the project location as being within a notified industrial complex.

However, SIPCOT Industrial Estate Phase II, in which the proposed copper smelter plant was to be commissioned, was yet to obtain environmental clearance. There was no public hearing before environmental clearance was given, the petition said.

The petition sought an injunction against commissioning of the second copper plant and quashing of the environment clearance granted by both the Centre and the State as they were against the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

The plant has been shut for over 50 days following protests by local people who allege that water was contaminated by emission from the plant. The company, however, denies this.

Earlier this year, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board rejected Sterlite’s application seeking renewal of consent to operate the plant. The company moved the Appellate Authority against this, and the next hearing is on June 6.

DMK working president MK Stalin, in a series of tweets, wanted to know if the State Chief Minster will take action against the DGP for failing to maintain law and order and whether the Chief Secretary would explain her role in the episode.

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