The development dilemma in Tuticorin

BRP Bhaskar
Veteran journalist

Any talk of last week's firings in Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, which left 13 dead and about 100 injured, as another Jallianwala Bagh is hyperbole. But the two events have something in common: both were uncalled for and motivated by considerations other than law and order.

The first firing took place last Tuesday as the long-running local agitation against the copper smelter plant of the Sterlite Industries, a unit of Anil Agarwal's UK-based Vedanta Resources, entered the 100th day. The protests which had been peaceful turned violent on that day and police vans and buses were torched.

It is reasonable to assume that intelligence agencies had alerted the authorities about the possibility of the 100th day observance attracting large crowds and that they had made preparations to meet the situation. Yet the police were outnumbered and preparations, like deploying of water cannons, not taken. Instead, commandos were pressed into service. They acted in the way they are trained to, which is quite different from what is laid down in the standard operating procedures of the regular police force.

The issue in Thoothukudi (also known by the British-era name of Tuticorin) is one which crops up often in areas where industrial units with the potential to create environmental problems are located. Efforts to improve the ease-of-doing-business ranking have aggravated the problem in Thoothukudi, which boasts of the second highest human development index in Tamil Nadu after Chennai. It has a port, which is one of the fastest growing ones in the country, and the Gulf of Mannar where it is located is known for pearl farming. It is also a growing educational centre.

The Sterlite copper plant has an annual production capacity of 4,00,000 tonnes, which it wants to double. It came to Tamil Nadu, after being thrown out of Maharashtra, and started operating from an industrial estate set up by the state government. 

Not only people in the vicinity of the plant but also many more, particularly farmers and fishermen, want the factory to be shut down in view of the damage it is causing to the environment and the threat it is posing to people's livelihood. 

As the company made plans to expand its capacity by adding another smelter unit, fears of increased pollution levels rose and cries for the plant's closure became shriller.

The company has claimed that the pollutants in its emissions are within permissible limits. However, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has not accepted the claim.

The NDA government has sought to pin the blame for the pollution problems on the UPA government which, it claims, gave the necessary clearances. There is some truth in it, but it is not the whole truth. The story of the clearances obtained by the company is mired in controversies. 

When the Sterlite factory was set up, it did not require separate environmental clearance as it was in an industrial estate which had the requisite clearance. In 2006, the Parliament enacted a new environmental law which provides for a public hearing before grant of clearance. Thus, there was a materially altered situation when the company sought the Centre's approval to expand the smelter capacity. Yet, the UPA government gave clearance without raising any issue. 

The clearance the UPA regime granted was valid for five years. Since the expansion was not done within that period, the company approached the Centre for its extension in 2013. By this time, environmental issues had come up in many project sites and the UPA government said the companies go through the process of public consultation. 

In December 2014, the new NDA regime did away with the consultation process through a regulation issued under the label of "clarification". This opened the way for a host of companies to go ahead with their projects, ignoring people's concerns.

In March 2015, the ministry extended Sterlite's environmental clearance till December 2018.

The issue came up before the courts at different levels, leading to confusing or even contradictory conclusions.

The National Greens Tribunal ruled in 2016 that the NDA regime's 2014 December clarification which benefited Sterlite was illegal. It rejected the Environment Ministry's plea that rescinding of the government order would adversely affect several projects under way.

When a complaint about harmful sulphur dioxide emissions from the Sterlite factory came up before the Supreme Court, it asked the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute to study the problem. NEERI reported that sulphur and other pollutants were present in the groundwater, but they were within permissible limits.

On another occasion, the apex court found the company guilty of polluting the environment and fined it Rs 100 crore.

On two occasions, the Madras High Court ordered the closure of the plant following complaints of pollution. Both times, it got respite on appeal. In one case, the apex court went beyond the issue of pollution to justify a decision in favour of the compny.  The plant, it said, "contributes substantially to the copper production in India and copper is used in defence, electricity, automobile, construction and infrastructure etc." 

The first police firing occurred the day before the High Court's Madurai Bench was due to deliver its judgment on a public interest litigation demanding closure of the plant. After the court upheld the plea, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board ordered the closure of the copper smelter plant with immediate effect. Power supply was cut off to ensure that the plant, which was not operating for the last two months, does not resume work.

To contain the people's fury over the firimgs, the Tamil Nadu Government transferred the District Collector and the Superintendent of Police of Tuticorin and announced an inquiry by a retired high court judge. But it still has to answer  why it remained a mute spectator until people's discontent erupted into violence.

The Tuticorin developments call for urgent introspection by the Centre and all stakeholders on the developmental dilemma the nation is facing. The NDA government's exertions have dramatically improved India's position in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business index from 140 in 2014 to 100 this year . Last year's 30-point jump was unprecedented. But mustn't ease of doing business go hand in hand with ease of living for the people?