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TN to act on Sterlite permanent closure demand after HC final order

The Tamil Nadu government will await the Madras high court's final order before taking a decision on the opposition demand for the permanent closure of the controversial Sterlite copper smelting plant at Tuticorin whose operations were halted on Monday night following a high court directive.

This was disclosed by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi while replying to a special call attention motion sought to be moved by Dr E S S Raman of the Tamil Maanila Congress and four others in the state assembly today.

The high court's green bench had ordered the plant to suspend its operations forthwith in the wake of a series of recent plant accidents and on the basis of a report commissioned by it from the Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute. The case would come up for hearing again before the high court on December 1.

The NEERI report had faulted the state and Union governments for granting environmental clearance to the plant on the basis of insufficient data and in spite of the resistance to the setting up of the plant in three other states -- Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa.

Karunanidhi said the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was not in power in either the state or the Centre in 1994 when permission to run the plant at the Tuticorin Sipcot complex was granted. This happened during the previous All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam regime in the state, when the Congress was in power at the Centre.

UNI

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