Sterlite protest: 1 more dies, HC stays plant expansion

Tuticorin/Chennai, May 23

Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin town was on the boil again on Wednesday, with a man shot dead in police firing following fresh clashes between security personnel and locals, who are demanding closure of a copper factory over pollution concerns. 

In the line of Opposition fire, the state government constituted a commission  headed by retired Madras High Court judge Aruna Jagadeesan to probe the violence, and shunted out the Tuticorin Collector and Superintendent of Police. 

The Union Home Ministry has, meanwhile, sought a report from the Tamil Nadu Government on the circumstances leading to the police firing on protesters, official sources said in New Delhi.

Taking cognisance of the large-scale violence, the National Human Rights Commission issued notices to Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary and DGP, asking them to submit a report in two weeks, while the Madras High Court stayed the proposed expansion of the plant.

Enraged over the killings on Tuesday, protesters took to the streets this morning, attacking policemen with stones, setting two government vehicles afire and trying to storm into a hospital where the injured were admitted, prompting security personnel to baton-charge them and open fire.

Actor and Makkal Neethi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan  visited the injured.  — PTI 

Centre seeks report

• • TN CM calls on Guv, apprises him of the situation 
  • Tuticorin Collector and SP shunted out; NHRC notices to Chief Secy, DGP 
  • Preserve bodies of those killed in police firing: HC
  • Rahul Gandhi drags RSS into Tuticorin violence, livid BJP hits back