Tuticorin-based Sterlite Copper has won water efficient unit award during the 9th National Award for Excellence in Water Management 2012 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – So

Protesting against an alleged polluting industrial unit in their town, around 200 residents of Kayalpatnam in Tuticorin district filed RTI petitions with the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) here on Monday. They also met TNPCB officials and made representations with them.

Residents and members of the Kayalpatnam Environmental Protection Association (KEPA) alleged that the factory owned and operated by DCW Ltd at Sahupuram, had been flagrantly flouting environmental norms by releasing effluents into the sea.The factory manufactured caustic soda, liquid chlorine, beneficiated ilmenite and trichloroethylene, and PVC.

Police make elaborate security arrangements at Collectorate

Representatives from various organisations and the villages, opposing the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, separately submitted petitions during the weekly grievance day meeting held here on Monday seeking the unconditional dropping of all cases filed against the anti-nuke activists and immediate release of anti-KKNPP protestors arrested during the ongoing agitations and subsequently lodged in the prisons.

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) general secretary Vaiko on Tuesday strongly pleaded in the Supreme Court for a permanent closure of the copper smelting plant of Sterlite Industries at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu.

He made this submission before a Bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and H.L. Gokhale, hearing an appeal filed by Sterlite Industries against a Madras High Court judgment directing closure of the plant. The Court in October 2010 had stayed the judgment and is now in the process of final hearing of the case.

The Supreme Court on Thursday said it cannot be swayed by emotions or public protests in directing closure of polluting industries but have to go strictly by law in deciding demands for closing down Sterlite Industries in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin district.

A bench of justices A K Patnaik and H L Gokhale wondered whether courts can intervene and direct closure even after the authorities like the pollution control board had granted the clearance.

Cites inordinate delays in construction of the 2,175-km lines as reason

Ending months of uncertainty, the government has cancelled authorisations issued to Mukesh Ambani’s privately held firm to lay down four gas pipelines totalling 2,175 km. The company, Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd, or RGTIL, had authorisation for building four trunk pipelines — Kakinada-Haldia, Kakinada-Chennai, Chennai-Tuticorin and Chennai-Bangalore-Mangalore — set to be completed this year.

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Central Pollution Control Board and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to investigate compliance of emission control and effluent treatment measures

Claim that their farmlands dry up sans required amount of water

Many farmers voiced concerns over illegal suction of groundwater at several places and being supplied to industries in the district. They sought the intervention of officials at the grievance redressal meeting here on Thursday to curb the irregularity. The farmers from Tiruchendur, Srivaikuntam and Ottapidaram had unanimously voiced their concern over such violations in large scale and claimed that their farmlands were getting dried up sans required amount of water.

The Indian cotton market is at peace. Three months of respite from government meddling has allowed the business to stagger back on its feet.

New Delhi The oil ministry has decided to cancel permits issued to billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s privately owned RGTIL to lay four natural gas pipelines saying there were inordinate delays in construction of the 2,175-km lines.

The ministry refused to buy RGTIL’s argument that the government has already allocated all of the projected 91 mmscmd gas output from the KG-D6 fields to customers in Andhra Pradesh, Maharasthra and other northern states, leaving no gas for transportation through its proposed pipelines from Kakinada to Howrah, Chennai, Tuticorin and Mangalore.

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