Vedanta Resources: Keeping up the promises - Are they?
The Vedanta Resources has been of late caught up in a controversy over the expansion of its copper smelting plant. The Sterlite Copper plant; owned by the London-based Vedanta and located in Thoothukudi in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, has been facing sporadic protests from locals and other organizations in the State for over 20 years and the latest protest is a similar one. The company plans to expand its plant to a capacity of 8 lakh tonnes a year despite the protest. The protesters claim that Sterlite has been responsible for pollution and damage to environmental resources.
However, the chief executive of Vedanta Group, Mr. Ramnath mentions that the expansion will go as planned. In his exclusive interview to ET, he also panned the protesters and stated that they had vested interests that motivate them to make false claims on the company. Adding to his argument, he further states that the plant has received all legal permission and clearances for the plant. It should be noted that 30% of the expansion operations have already been carried out and Mr. Ramnath claims that the remaining 70% will also be carried on without any considerable hurdles by the end of the third of fourth quarter of 2019.
The Sterlite plant has been accused as a threat to livelihood, resources and the environment many times over the past two decades and the company has overcome these accusations by winning legal battles over protesters. A similar protest had now emerged and it has been going on for 55 days now with people gathering in large masses to show their discontent. These protests are backed by many environmental groups as well as leading political movements in the State.
It is worthy to note that the Pollution Control Board has not given renewal of consent to the Sterlite plant due to the ongoing protests. As a result, the plant has not been in operation for ten past 15 years. The government hears the grievances of the protestors and legally checks for air quality in the region and also checks the pollution control mechanism deployed the company.
Only after such an examination can be plant obtain a CTO (certificate of consent) for its plant. Mr. Ramnath says that the company is considering further course of action to contend for its intention to expand the smelting plant in Thoothukudi.
Even in 2013, the company was ordered to pay a fine of 100 crore rupees for environmental damage. But, after the penalty had been levied, the company had been permitted to carry on operations in the smelting plant. But, Mr. Tammara stays firm in his argument that the protest in the past 20 years are all baseless and there are foreign benefactors behind these protests, who even bring forth "churches and trade association leaders" for protests, he claims.
The protests have forced Vedanta to reschedule and advance their maintenance shutdown, which was originally meant to be in April, during this period of 15 days.