Team News Riveting
Chennai, October 18
The Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission of Inquiry on the Thoothukudi firing near Vedanta’s Sterlite’s copper smelter plant in Tamil Nadu has submitted its report indicting police for the lapse.
In the incident that took place on May 22, 2018, 13 people were killed and more than 100 injured. The report was tabled in Tamil Nadu Assembly today.
According to the report, the lack of coordination between District Collector and policemen was the main reason that led to the incident. The commission has reportedly suggested strict action on 17 police officers.
The commission was constituted by the then AIADMK government to inquire into the details of the police firing which resulted in the killing of civilians who were protesting against industrial pollution in the city, allegedly caused by the Vedanta’s Sterlite’s copper smelter plant at Thoothukudi.
The commission, which has had two extensions because of the COVID-19 pandemic, took four years to complete its inquiry. However, it had submitted an interim report to the government in May 2021 in which it had identified the injured victims and those who had lost employment opportunities because of police interrogations and recommended the government to provide adequate compensation to them.
After the incident, the state government ordered the closure of plant. The Madras High Court upheld the May 2018 decision of the Tamil Nadu government to close down Sterlite Copper, a unit of Vedanta group, over allegations of polluting the environment in Thoothukudi, a port town about 610 kms from Chennai. In August 2020, Vedanta moved the Supreme Court to challenge the Madras High Court order.
Tuticorin smelter accounts for 40 percent of the country’s copper smelting capacity besides providing direct and indirect jobs to over 15,000 people.
