Collector K. Senthil Raj has formed a nine-member local management committee for monitoring removal of gypsum from Sterlite Copper plant that remains closed for the past five years.
The plant was sealed after 13 persons were killed in police firing during the anti-Sterlite agitation in May 2018. Subsequently, the district administration removed 14 materials – sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, hydrofluorosilicic acid, isopropyl alcohol, liquefied petroleum gas, high-speed diesel, light diesel oil, heavy furnace oil, lubricants, liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen, rock phosphate, copper concentrate and gypsum – from the 500-acre plant.
However, 1.25 lakh tonnes of gypsum still remains on the premises. Hence, the district administration has formed the committee, headed by the Sub-Collector, Thoothukudi, to monitor the removal of the remaining amount of gypsum and other hazardous materials, if any.
The other members of the committee are the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Thoothukudi Rural; Joint Director of Industrial Safety and Health, Thoothukudi; District Environmental Engineer; District Fire Officer; Executive Engineer (Planning), Thoothukudi Municipal Corporation; Block Development Officer, Ottapidaram panchayat union; and an administrative representative and a technical representative of Vedanta Limited, the promoter of Sterlite Copper.
The committee, in consultation with Vedanta Limited, will identify and approve the vendor, preferably with experience in operating inside the plant.
Then the vendor will submit a plan detailing the manpower and the machinery required and the number of vehicles to be operated in the plant. The committee will approve Vedanta Limited’s ‘work order’ to be given to the vendor with the estimated time for completion of the work.
The removal of gypsum, secured landfill, leachate sump pumping, rectification of the bund of the secured landfill facility-4 and the green belt maintenance should be carried out from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Entry and exit of the men and the materials should be through the ‘side gate’ where CCTV cameras should be installed.
The police would monitor the cleaning operation.
The cost of the exercise should be borne by Vedanta Limited and the payment to the vendor should be made by the company following approval by the committee.
Once the work is completed, the men and the materials should be withdrawn. However, the committee would continue to maintain the green belt within the plant with adequate manpower.
A control room would be established at the site where the copy of the log book and the CCTV live monitoring feed would be maintained. Anyone who wishes to examine the CCTV footage or the log book can do so after getting permission from the chairman of the committee. The progress of the work would be reviewed at 4 p.m. every Monday at the Sub-Collector’s office and a report will be submitted to the Collector.
