New Delhi, Sep 4 (TIWN): Nearly 20 people, led by Murugan, Secretary, Pro-Sterlite Foundation, presented a memorandum to S.P, Singh Baghel, Minister of State for Law and Justice; Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change; and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman demanding the immediate reopening of Sterlite Copper Smelting plant in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu.

The Federation, numbering in thousands, consisting of truck owners, truck drivers, raw material suppliers, contractors, women's self-help groups, and others dependent on the plant, a plea for a quick resolution to reopen the plant. The urgency stemmed from more than 15,000 families losing their livelihood since the plant's closure. These also include the port workers, lorry drivers, contract labour workers and sole breadwinning women.

"We have been suffering for more than four years since the Sterlite plant's shutdown, and our livelihoods have been impacted severely," states the memorandum.

It also added that the closure was due to an "orchestrated agitation by outside people. We have therefore formed a Pro-Sterlite Plant Federation to prove that the propaganda and misinformation by the anti-Sterlite groups in Thoothukudi are not true".

The protesters also met the secretaries in the Ministry of Finance, including the cabinet and state ministers, the cabinet and state minister in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the cabinet and state minister of the Minister of Law and Justice.

The pro-Sterlite protesters from Pandarampatti, Sankaraperi, Meelavittan, Madathur, Kummareddiarpuram, Naduvakurichi, Rajavinkovil, Puurpandiapuram, Sillanatham villages in Tamil Nadu had taken to the streets raising slogans in favour of the copper smelting plant after Sterlite Copper invited an Expression of Interest (EOI) from potential buyers for its contentious Thoothukudi unit.

The EOI was published in national and regional papers on June 2022.

Several petitions have been submitted to the Chief Ministers and state offices requesting the reopening of the plant, a significant employment generator in the region before it was closed on charges of environmental pollution.