An all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday decided unanimously to open the oxygen plant of Anil Aggarwal’s Sterlite Copper Plant at Thoothukudi in view of the pandemic situation prevailing in the State.
The State saw the number of new Covid-19 patients shooting up to 15,684 on a single day while 94 deaths were recorded all over the State. Chennai saw 4,250 new patients while neighbouring Chengalpattu district saw the figures going up by 1,142 on Monday.
The Copper manufacturing unit owned by Aggarwal’s Vedanata Group has been shut down since May 28, 2021 following riots by activists who demanded the closure of the facility because of alleged environmental pollution.
Tamil Nadu has been facing severe shortage of oxygen in the backdrop of the increasing number of Covid-19 cases. The Sterlite unit is capable of producing 1,000 tonnes oxygen per day.
The Tamil Nadu Government in a release said that the oxygen produced at the Sterlite plant would be used to meet the demands of the State and the surplus if any would be given to other States which are in short supply.
The Chief Minister had told the media on Sunday that the State was in need of 310 tonnes oxygen per day and thus may rise to 450 tonnes per day in coming days.
The all-party meeting was unanimous in the decision that only the oxygen production plant of the Sterlite Copper would be allowed to operate and no other facilities of the company would be re-opened or revived.
The Sterlite Ltd had filed a plea in the Supreme Court asking for court directive to the State Government to allow the Group to operate the oxygen manufacturing plant because Tamil Nadu Governmentg does not have the capability or know-how to operate the plant.
The MDMK led by Vaiko and NTK owned by Seaman had staged protests in Thoothukudi last week against the move to open the oxygen producing facility of Sterlite Ltd.
The Madras High Court Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee on Monday lambasted the election Commission of India and blamed it for the second wave of Covid-19 that struck the State. While considering a plea moved by AIADMK leader M R Vijaybaskar who is also the Transport Minister, to direct the Election Commission of India to put in place stringent measures during the May 2 counting of votes, the chief justice said the ECI should have put in place strict guidelines to enforce the people to fall in line and observe the safety protocols.
Meanwhile Tamil Nadu Police has issued an alert about the unusual meetings and religious ceremonies being held in certain districts of the State by Tablighi Jamaat activists since the last two months.
It was the TJ activists who played a crucial role in 2020 in spreading the pandemic across the State.