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Sterlite copper plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi up for sale
Thirteen people were killed in alleged police firing during protests against Vedanta Limited’s Sterlite copper plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district in 2018
Vedanta Limited’s Sterlite copper plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district is up for sale four years after the state government sealed it following the killing of 13 people in alleged police firing during protests against it.
In a newspaper advertisement, Vedanta Limited on Monday invited Expression Of Interest (EOI) to sell the smelter and refining complex. “Interested and financially competent parties shall submit an expression of interest along with company profile and other relevant credentials latest by 1800 hours, 4th July 2022,” the advertisement said.
The National Green Tribunal allowed the reopening of the plant in 2018 before the Supreme Court stayed the order in this regard while giving Vedanta the liberty to approach the Madras high court. In 2020, the high court refused to order the reopening. The company moved Supreme Court, where its plea to reopen the plant is pending.
In 2021, the top court gave Vedanta a conditional go-ahead to reopen the plant to meet the demand for medical oxygen amid the second Covid-19 wave. The plant operated for three months until the second wave subsided and the premises was shut again.
V Gunaseelan, a Thoothukudi-based activist, said the move to sell the plant seems to be a ploy to avoid bank loans and court cases. “Is it not contempt of court for them to issue an EOI while the case is pending in the Supreme Court?” he asked.
The company called the plant a national asset. It said the plant has been catering to 40% of the national demand for copper and played an integral role in India’s self-sufficiency in copper. “In the best interest of the country and the people of Tamil Nadu, we are exploring options to make sure that the plant and the assets are best utilised to meet the growing copper demand of the nation,” the company said in a statement.
The Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission probing the anti-Sterlite violence and police firing in May 2018 submitted its interim report to chief minister M K Stalin last year.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is also probing the shooting, has not made much headway.
