Chennai: “We as a company have always been environmentally conscious and have followed all regulations laid down by law,” said CEO, Sterlite Copper, P Ramnath in his statement that came after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) panel submitted its report yesterday.
The statement read, “The NGT committee has followed due process to independently investigate and hear both sides of the argument. They have submitted their report to the NGT and the operative paragraphs of the report were read out in the open court which mentioned that the orders passed by the TN government are against the principles of natural justice.”
“The points raised in the orders passed or other additional issues raised are not grievous and does not justify permanent closure of the factory. The committee has also proposed certain recommendations to be complied by both company and TNPCB,” it further read.
Ramnath has stated that Sterlite Copper will go through (the report) “in detail to study the recommendations”.
“Both parties have been given liberty to file their submissions with respect to the report or otherwise within a period of one week from today (28 November) and the matter is posted for further hearing on 7 December,” he said.
Ramnath also thanked parties that spoke in favour of Vedanta. “As a company, we have always been concerned about the wellbeing of our employees, the villages in and around our plant, our stakeholders and the people of Thoothukudi shall always remain committed to the same. We hope that the verdict will now be given soon for life to come back to normalcy for the 25,000 families impacted by the closure. We thank all stakeholders and the people of Thoothukudi for their continued support,” he said.