Chennai: Tamilnadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has convened an all party meeting at the State Secretariat today to discuss the issue of allowing the Sterlite copper smelter plant at Thoothukudi to reopen to produce oxygen.
The DMK said it would participate in the meeting.
When asked about DMK’s stand on allowing Sterlite to produce oxygen, party general secretary Duraimurugan said organisational secretary R S Bharathi and Tuticorin Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi would articulate the party position in the meeting.
The office of Kanimozhi, who is also the women’s wing secretary of the party, in a brief statement said that she would take part in the meeting.
The plant was shut and sealed back in May 2018 after the police firing in an anti-Sterlite protest, killing 13 people.
People are dying due to lack of oxygen, the Supreme Court had said on 23 April, asking why the Tamilnadu government cannot take over the Sterlite copper unit for producing oxygen to treat Covid-19 patients.
Palaniswami on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking that the diversion of 80 KL of liquid oxygen from Sriperumbudur to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana be immediately stopped as the active case load in Tamilnadu had crossed the one-lakh mark.