Antagonism Adds To Sterlite Woes

Sterlite Industries India Ltd (SIILl), whose copper smelter complex here remains shut down after a gas leak controversy, finds itself in a tight spot with activists of anti-Sterlite determined to oppose the factory's reopening.

'It's true that we face stiff local opposition. Vested interests are taking advantage of this public hostility. We are trying our best to win the trust of the people,' Hemant Jalan, senior vice president (commercial) of SIIL said here.

Activists of the anti-Sterlite movement said they would continue and intensify their stir, even if the four-member independent committee, set up by the state government, exonerated the company from the allegations.

 

'Even if the July 5 incident, which affected 90 girls of an adjoining unit, had not taken place at Sterlite, such an accident may happen any time at the copper complex, as its systems are totally unsafe,' Dr Hussain, a zoologist spearheading the movement, claimed.

'Sterlite has to go, irrespective of the result of the current controversy,' Fathima Babu of the People's Watch fact-finding team remarked. The state government ordered temporary closure of the copper complex in the wake of charges that an alleged leakage of sulphur dioxide from the unit on July 5 last, caused 90 women employees at the adjoining flower unit to cough and faint.

Jalan said Sterlite found it difficult to 'establish rapport with the Tuticorin people, due to strong caste feelings among the people and their prejudice against the company.' There have been campaigns which said that Sterlite would benefit