 "The MoEFCC received almost 2 million comments after it extended the deadline for feedback from June 30 to August 11")
On August 18, the Madras High Court rejected a petition from Sterlite Copper, from the mining conglomerate Vedanta’s stable, to reopen its plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi, closed since 2018 for its failure to meet pollution control norms. “Economic considerations can have no role to play while deciding the sustainability of a highly polluting industry,” a two-judge bench observed.
These remarks are significant when set against the current controversy between the government and activists over the draft rules for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), an exercise that has been mandatory for expansion, modernisation or new projects since 1994. The new norms
