After Protests, Power Supply Cut To Thoothukudi Sterlite Plant

Power supply to Vedanta’s Sterlite Plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi city has been cut Thursday (24 May), Tamil daily Daily Thanthi has reported.

According to the daily’s report, the supply was cut on the recommendations of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.

The pollution board’s action follows the stay on the plant’s expansion plans by the Madras High Court on 23 May. The court had stayed the expansion plans after violence broke out in protests staged in the city demanding the closure of the plant.

On 22 May, while marking the hundredth day of their protests that began in February, some of the protestors, suspected to be cadres of organisations that were out to wreak law and order in the State, turned violent, attacking police and the collectorate. Sterlite plant employees quarters next to the collectorate was also targeted.

Police resorted to tear gas shelling, lathi-charge and firing that resulted in 11 persons being killed. Another person was shot dead Wednesday (23 May) when some people tried to resume protest, while one person succumbed to bullet injuries on Thursday, taking the death toll to 13.

In an effort to restore law and order, the State Government suspended Internet connections for five days in Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari.

Meanwhile, Thoothukudi districts collector G Prakash and superintendent of police P Mahendran have been transferred.