CHENNAI: The State government is building a watertight case against Vedanta’s Sterlite to be presented before the National Green Tribunal-appointed expert panel. The panel held three full days of hearing and the State government counsel is awaiting his turn to present submissions. The case has been adjourned to October 27 for further hearing.
Shambhu Kallolikar, Environment secretary and chairman of Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), told Express that the State government was building a watertight case against Sterlite and will be making a detailed submission with documentary evidence at the next hearing.
Out of three days of hearing, Sterlite counsel took over two days and on Saturday, senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan, appearing for State government, reportedly got agitated and objected to it. R Kannan, Joint Chief Environment Engineer, TNPCB, said that Sterlite had presented nine volumes containing about 1,500 pages of fresh documents of some studies and reports. “We have to go through the documents to be able to counter.”
Kallolikar said the government has all proof required to substantiate the violations. “We have prepared about 100 slides for presentation and 500 pages of documentary evidence. We will finish our arguments in 45 minutes.”
Fathima Babu of Anti-Sterlite Movement alleged that Sterlite had illegally disposed more than 18,500 tonnes of toxic waste containing up to 26 tonnes of arsenic between April 2014 and March 2017. “TNPCB data confirms that Sterlite has disposed the toxic waste unauthorisedly. It disposed nearly 3,500 tonnes of the toxic sludge to Maharashtra-based Suhans Chemical Pvt Ltd, which is not an authorised dealer,” she told the panel.
Confirming the same, TNPCB chairman said Suhans Chemical was not an authorised dealer and Sterlite didn’t even inform the board, while disposing the waste.
However, Sterlite has dismissed all allegations. “The interveners collectively raised concerns on Sterlite Copper’s operations in the region. However, they failed to produce any evidence to support their accusations,” a company release said.
The release said the NGT panel was apprised that none of the five grounds for rejection of Consent to Operate renewal were tenable either on fact or in law. “Providing documentary evidence to prove that there are no findings of pollution against the unit, he explained that the concerns raised by public with regard to health, stack height, greenbelt, ground water, ambient air quality and soil are all misconstrued and baseless. The plant closure due to ‘pollution’ claims was purely a knee jerk reaction to misguided public pressure without any basis of scientific evidence to prove the same,” the release said.
Disposal of toxins
Fathima Babu of Anti-Sterlite Movement alleged that Sterlite had illegally disposed more than 18,500 tonnes of toxic waste containing up to 26 tonnes of arsenic between 2014 and 2017. “TNPCB data confirms that Sterlite has disposed the toxic waste unauthorisedly,” she told the panel