CHENNAI: A three-member committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal to study the effects of the Sterlite copper smelter plant in Tuticorin held hearing in Chennai on Monday.The panel , headed by former chief justice of the Meghalaya high court Justice Tarun Agrawal, was constituted after Sterlite’s parent company Vedanta petitioned the NGT to consider reopening of the plant which was sealed on May 28 due to protests by locals.Justice Agrawal and other committee members -- scientists Satish C Garkoti and H D Varalaxmi – were in Tuticorin on Saturday and Sunday before holding the hearing in Chennai on Monday. They visited the plant on Sunday.MDMK founder Vaiko represented the local people opposing reopening of the plant when the committee met at Kalas Mahal -- the National Green Tribunal’s southern region office in Chennai.After the hearing, which started at 10.30am and ended at 2.30pm, Vaiko told reporters that protests against Sterlite had been going on for the past 22 years. He said, “during today’s hearing, the counsel for the company put forth his arguments for over an hour and a half.”He said the company had brought in people from Tuticorin, including a few businessmen and a couple of traders, and made them to say that the company was needed for the locals as the economy was affected due to the closure.“The tribunal has heard the voice of the company. It should give a chance to hear the voices of common people, those who lost their family members during the protests, farmers, fishermen and real traders,” he said.“Sterlite is an environmental disaster, I told the tribunal,” he saidVaiko said the committee had agreed to hear his argument. Next hearing will be held on October 5 and 6.Even as the participants in the hearing were sharing details with the media, a verbal dual broke out between the pro and anti-Sterlite groups. The anti-Sterlite group charged that those who supported it were on the payroll of the company. However, a group of pro-Sterlite members said the anti-group was trying to create problems.

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