Tamil Nadu asks CPCB to cancel Sterlite panel visit

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday asked the Central Pollution Control Board to cancel the proposed visit of the National Green Tribunal-appointed committee to look into Sterlite’s plea challenging the order of the Tamil Nadu government to close its copper unit in Tuticorin. The green panel recently appointed former Meghalaya high court judge justice Tarun Agrawal to head the committee.
In a letter to CPCB regional director, TN pollution control board member-secretary D Sekar made the request to cancel the visit as the matter was sub judice. “The proposed visit of the committee may be cancelled and the same may be communicated to the chairman and members of the committee,” the officer said. The state government received a message on Monday evening about the proposed threeday visit of the committee to M/s Vedanta Ltd, Tuticorin and Chennai, beginning September 22.
Sekar recalled the state government’s plea in the Supreme Court and the principal bench of green tribunal about the maintainability of the NGT order. The state filed a petition in the apex court on Friday, with a prayer to review the order of the court – allowing the tribunal to hear the matter both on merits as well as on maintainability of the issue raised by the Tamil Nadu government on Vedanta’s plea challenging the closure order.
A bench of justices Rohinton Fali Nariman and Indu Malhotra had said the tribunal would proceed to decide the matter once the committee’s report was given. The tribunal on August 20 set up a committee headed by former chief justice of Punjab and Haryana high court justice S J Vazifdar, comprising representatives from the CPCB and the Union ministry of environment and forests. After Vazifdar recused himself from the matter, the tribunal appointed justice Tarun Agrawal to visit the site and consider the technical data and take a decision, preferably within six weeks after it began working.
Meanwhile, National Green Tribunal southern bench has announced that the Tarun Agrawal committee will hold a sitting in the southern bench in Chepauk on September 24 at 10am.