Thoothukudi, a town in distress

The Sterlite issue continues to roil, with multiple sides joining a never-ending debate. Adding grist to the mill is the report of the three-member committee set up by the National Green Tribunal, which deems the permanent closure of the plant unsustainable. All this, even as the town is a picture of neglect and apathy

December 01, 2018 11:29 pm | Updated December 02, 2018 05:37 pm IST

Beset with crises: Thoothukudi’s problems do not end with Sterlite Copper’s closure, as the overall industrial growth in the district is also in a shambles. Existing large industries, especially coal-based thermal power plants, are facing a crunch.

Beset with crises: Thoothukudi’s problems do not end with Sterlite Copper’s closure, as the overall industrial growth in the district is also in a shambles. Existing large industries, especially coal-based thermal power plants, are facing a crunch.

The report of the three-member committee set up by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), submitted six months after the loss of 13 lives in the May 22-23 anti-Sterlite protest in Thoothukudi, has kindled hopes for a reopening of Sterlite Copper.

 

Naturally, those who continue to be part of the over two-decade-old struggle against the plant feel let down.

 

P. Ramnath, CEO, Sterlite Copper, welcomed the report, which termed the orders passed by the State for the plant's closure as “being against the principles of natural justice and not sustainable”.

 

“We hope that the verdict will now be given soon, for life to come back to normal for the 25,000 families impacted by the closure,” he said. But those who intervened in the proceedings, to whom a copy of the order is yet to be provided, question the manner in which the panel went about its investigation.

 

The committee, led by retired Meghalaya High Court Chief Justice Tarun Agrawal, and with Satish C. Garkoti, a scientist with the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and H.D. Varalaxmi, from the Regional Directorate of the Central Pollution Control Board, as members, was set up after Vedanta Limited, the parent company of Sterlite Copper, filed a plea in the NGT against the sealing and closure order of the State government, disconnection of water supply and electricity and rejection of Consent To Operate (CTO) by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to the plant.

 

A public hearing was held at the Government Polytechnic College when the committee visited Thoothukudi on September 23.  The committee also inspected a site where the company’s copper slag, tonnes of it, had been allegedly dumped beside a dry channel, Uppar Odai, which was one of the five grounds for the TNPCB to order closure of the plant.

 

The TNPCB, in its statement of reasons for turning down the plea for renewal of the CTO, also said that the company had failed to furnish reports of groundwater analysis, analyse heavy metals in the ambient air, and that it was not following guidelines of the CPCB in the construction of a gypsum pond, and charged that it was operating without a hazardous waste authorisation.

 

"The scope of the committee was limited to the orders leading up to the final closure order of the State government," says B. Poongkhulali, who represented anti-Sterlite activist Fatima Baby. However, this mandate was obscured during the hearing, she says. However,this mandate was obscured during the hearings, she added.

During the hearings, the interveners flagged a number of key issues – lack of adequate land which was allegedly misrepresented in two different submissions made by the company to the TNPCB and the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, implying a lack of space for pollution mitigation measures, lack of authorisation, illegal disposal and under-reporting of hazardous waste by the plant.

 

Hazardous waste

 

They pointed out that the company did not have authorisation to dispose of hazardous waste between 2013 and 2018. Sterlite reportedly contended that the did not provide the authorisation, despite the company following it up through reminders, and added that it was following earlier norms. The company allegedly handed the waste to other private parties who were not authorised to handle such waste.

Sterlite says pollution in Thoothukudi cannot be attributed to the plant.

Shut and shattered: Sterlite says pollution in Thoothukudi cannot be attributed to the plant.

A submission, made on behalf of anti-Sterlite activist Fatima Babu before the committee, said that the company generated hazardous waste, including arsenic-bearing sludge (ETP cake), scrubber cake, non-ferrous bearing sludge (nickel sludge or ETP slime), which was not disposed of properly. The interveners also said that the company dumped other waste like copper slag and gypsum at a number of locations in the district, which caused problems like flooding.

 

The company, however, insisted that the slag was inert and was not the responsibility of the generator, once disposed through other parties.

 

Nityanand Jayaraman, an environmental activist, said that safe or screening levels for arsenic for residential, agricultural and industrial uses is 12 mg/kg as per guidelines available with MoEF&CC, while more than half the samples collected from inside and the vicinity of the plant exceeded safe levels. Five samples out of 20 were found to be beyond 50 mg/kg, which indicated that it should be treated as hazardous waste. More than half the samples also exceeded safe levels for other metals like copper and lead, he added.

 

In response to a submission by the interveners, which was a study conducted by the Tirunelveli Medical College in 2008 on the health status of those living in a 5 km radius around the Sterlite plant, the company had a rebuttal. Sterlite Copper reportedly said that medical examination and health monitoring by the company did not reveal any health abnormalities, as claimed in the report. It was met with an argument that only health camps, and not a comprehensive study, was conducted by the plant.

 

Is the data reliable?

 

The counsel appearing on behalf of the State government had presented data on the pollution levels in and around the plant including soil, water and air. It said that the air quality around the Sterlite plant had improved since its closure. However, some argue that part of the data gathering was not scrupulous. For instance, the level of sulphur dioxide on September 22 last year was compared with that of the levels on October 12 and 13.

 

Doubts were raised about the sample size, which only contained data for a few days. “The sample size should be larger to allow for temporary fluctuations,” said an expert, who wished anonymity. Another problem was the lack of sufficient air quality monitoring stations. “In an earlier order of the Supreme Court, the TNPCB was ordered to set up more air quality monitoring stations,” said Mr. Nityanand. In the absence of robust data, it was difficult to fix accountability. “The absence of evidence is being portrayed as absence of the problem,” he explained.

 

“Depending on the direction of wind and weather conditions, different parts of the town may be affected differently due to air pollution. So one cannot say that only a certain part would be affected.” Regardless of the evidence of the impact, the TNPCB should be a stickler for rules, he argued.

 

Sterlite Copper, in its nine-volume report and many other submissions to the committee, had argued that it was a law-abiding business operating under the norms laid out by regulators including the TNPCB and the MoEF&CC. It also argued that the pollution could not be directly attributed to the plant, as there were other industries in the area contributing to pollution.

 

The company also said that it operated an effective Zero Discharge Plant, which was contested by interveners on the ground that it was not designed to handle heavy rainfall, leading to run-off, which could affect groundwater.

 

When the NGT hearing was on in Chennai, there was a sense of competition between the two sides as to who submitted the maximum number of petitions.

 

Following the submission of the report, activists raised a number of contentions  that were also voiced earlier – including questioning the credibility of Mr. Agrawal, who was allegedly named a beneficiary in the Ghaziabad Provident Fund scam, maintainability of the case at the NGT while deciding on matters of policy of the State government. They also questioned why the company, which had a similar plea at the Appellate Authority, was impleaded at the NGT as well.

 

Residents of villages around the plant said that the committee did not have proper interactions with them. “He (Mr. Agrawal) stood here only for a few minutes during which some people talked to him,” said a resident of A. Kumarettiyapuram. At that time, dozens of pro-Sterlite members thronged the area, after which he left the spot. “We feel that the water quality has improved, and there’s less eye irritation now. We see the crops have become much greener,” a woman in the area chimed in.

 

 

Some of the residents, who met mediapersons recently in Madurai, voiced the need for a comprehensive health report of villagers in the vicinity of the plant, to gauge the extent of problems caused by pollution.

 

Unkept promises

 

Even though promises were made by Minister Kadambur C. Raju and the Collector about improving living conditions of those around the Sterlite plant, little seems to have happened on the ground. Roads remain battered, and people use wheelbarrows to fetch water in the absence of piped supply. Security has also been beefed up in the villages around the plant, which residents say has been the scenario since the agitation.

Despite promises, roads remain battered in Thoothukudi.

Despite promises, roads remain battered in Thoothukudi.

“It appears that the report suggests the State government's closure order is unsustainable. This does not necessarily mean a clean chit to the industry on all the serious concerns raised by the intervenors over the years,” said Ms. Poongkhulali.

 

“The points raised in the orders passed by the T.N. government or other additional issues raised are not grievous and do not justify permanent closure of the factory,” said Mr.

Ramnath, responding to queries from  The Hindu.  “Our stakeholders and the larger community at Thoothukudi have put a lot of trust in us for the last 8 to 9 months and have been submitting petitions for reopening of Sterlite and we believe a positive verdict from NGT will only further strengthen their trust in us.”

 

Out on a limb

 

Even as the law takes its own course, those who lost their jobs due to the closure of the plant have been feeling the pinch. H. Eswaran,  an employee at Sterlite for about 17 years, used to get around ?15,000 a month, while he was working at the phosphoric acid plant of the unit. For about four months after the plant’s closure, he was unemployed. “I enrolled myself at a private employment agency that charged 40% of a month’s salary. Later, I got the job of a waiter for a salary of ?9,000,” he said.

 

The tribulations of the employees seem to continue as Sterlite, the biggest unit in Thoothukudi and an employer of a large number of contract labourers, remains shut. The overall industrial growth in the district is also in a shambles. Large industries, which were part of the promised investment of ?68,120 crore during the Global Investors’ Meet 2015 in Thoothukudi, have not materialised. Existing large industries, especially coal-based thermal power plants, are also facing a crunch.

 

In another significant verdict by the NGT recently, it banned the use of water from Srivaikuntam anaicut for industries under the 20MGD scheme. The water from Srivaikuntam was being supplied to various industries including Thoothukudi Thermal Power Station, SPIC, industries at SIPCOT including Sterlite, among others. This was welcomed by many including farmers, but was a setback for industries in the district.

 

Finally, an FIR

 

Meanwhile, the CBI has registered its first FIR against government officials involved in the protest based on the complaint of K.S. Arjunan, district secretary of the CPI(M). “The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had stated that the CBI should take up complaints from others as well,” said Mr. Arjunan. But as no action had been taken on his complaint, he served a contempt notice and then followed it up with a contempt of court petition to the CBI. Later, the agency registered the case against “unidentified persons and public officials from the revenue and police department”.

 

Official sources said that an extension of the deadline may be sought by the investigating agency.  The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, in its August 14 ruling, asked the agency to conclude the investigation in four months.

 

(With inputs from L. Srikrishna and Pon Vasanth B.A.)

 

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