‘NGOs have an agenda: to shut down the plant’

Our papers are clear. Some conditions to renew the consent to operate (CTO) were fulfilled, but they never told us about some others, else we would have complied with them.

They said a ground water sample report was not provided within and outside the plant. But they collected the sample and tested it in a lab and gave us the reports.

They said an air sample with arsenic was not tested in an accredited lab.

But the lab where the sample was tested was accredited. If they have any specific lab in mind, we will do the test there.

Yes, there has been a lack of PR. We have created thousands of jobs for local people, created infrastructure, conducted vocational training programmes, provided micro financing, generated opportunites for contracts, provided water, engaged students in various competitions and provided sports facilities. We need to escalate these activities. We even allow the public inside the plant on Saturdays to clarify all their doubts. Even those people who started the protest were invited to visit the plant; the last time they came was in 2011.

What do you know of those who started the protests?

They are NGOs calling themselves environmentalists; they were not open to looking at facts and their only agenda is to shut down the plant. This is not a solution. If they have solutions, we are open to adopting them. They have not visited the plant for the past seven years, and are not willing to come for discussion. Two weeks ago, we gave an open invitation in the newspapers for talks, but they refused, saying the pollution is outside, not inside the plant. We do not understand their logic. If there is pollution, it has to be more inside than outside.

They allege we let out sulphur dioxide from the plant, but 99.5 per cent of it is converted into sulphuric acid, with only a minuscule portion let out when compared to thermal power plants with a total capacity of nearly 3,000 MW in the vicinity. This is a complete misconception. They should get their facts right than unnecessarily causing panic in the minds of the people.

These are myths being propagated. We need to arrest the spread of these myths. There is no correlation between Sterlite Copper and cancer. The Tamil Nadu Health Department data bears this out. Further, Thoothukudi is located in the rain shadow area. Despite this, in the past 20 years, the amount of rainfall has been much higher than in the previous 20 years. A few months ago, we had the highest rainfall in Thoothukudi ever. They alleged that we let out effluents into the sea. But we don’t have a 15-km pipeline to let out effluents into the sea! They claim we have underground pipelines. These are absurd statements. They try to twist facts to suit what they want to say.

NGOs are being used as a vehicle to destablise the industry. They have links with Foil Vedanta in the UK, which is funded by various foundations, and they want to do the same here. They claim to be environmentalists, but they neither listen to us nor offer solutions. Their only objective is to shut down the plant.

Many organisations and individuals posted inflammatory messages on social media inviting people to join the protest and showing pictures of a burning plant; they said May 22 would be the last day for Sterlite Copper. All these protesters cannot be local people. Some outsiders infiltrated into the town and are fanning the flames. They came with the intent of creating violence. We told the government to hold talks with villagers, but they kept saying this is not the right time.

We have so far invested around ₹2,500 crore, and plan to invest another ₹3,000 crore to double the capacity to nearly 800,000 tonnes.

We have not come to such a situation yet. We had the choice for the second plant but chose to be here.