Vedanta urges TN pollution board to act on SC order

CHENNAI: Vedanta-owned Sterlite Copper has sought implementation of a Supreme Court order that upheld a National Green Tribunal (NGT) decision to reopen its shuttered copper smelter in southern Tamil Nadu. People in the know said Sterlite has sought permission to reopen the 4 lakh tonne a year copper smelter in a letter to the Tamil Nadu government sent on January 10, two days after the SC refused to stay the NGT order. A SC bench of justices Rohington Fali Nariman and Navin Sinha had on January 8 ordered that the NGT order “will continue to subsist" and will be subject to the outcome of the appeal filed by the state government. An official with the pollution board said, “A letter has been addressed to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) chairman, enclosing a copy of the SC order.” Sterlite Copper had earlier written to the pollution board seeking to implement the NGT order delivered in December, but the board had rejected the request on grounds that it had moved the SC challenging the order.