Any legal challenge to this order by the Company should be defended appropriately by the State Government to ensure… https://t.co/xmToO8JpgX — Kamal Haasan (@ikamalhaasan) 1527512394000

TUTICORIN: The Tamil Nadu government on Monday issued a Government Order, directing the state Pollution Control Board to seal the Vedanta group's copper plant and close it down "permanently" following last week's violent protests during which 13 people were killed in police firing.The Government Order said it endorsed the recent closure direction of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, and also asked the TNPCB to "seal the unit and close the plant permanently".The state government said that it has accepted the plea of protesters who had been demanding the permanent closure of the plant.Recalling various steps taken by the state government over the past few days, Palaniswami said his government had already directed authorities to suspend power and water supply to the unit.TNPCB had declined to renew the 'Consent to Operate' to Sterlite plant in its order on April 9, 2018 and also directed the management of the company not to re-start operations without its prior approval."Under sections, 18 (1) (b) of the Water Act, 1974, in the larger public interest, the government endorses the closure direction of the TNPCB to seal the unit and close the plant permanently," the state government said in its order issued by environment secretary M D Nasimuddin."We consider the commitment shown by state government to permanently close the Sterlite unit as a victory for our protests. But this should not stop with issuing a government order. The government should remove all the machinery and resources out of the Sterlite unit so that the factory would not function again even after years," said S Jenarose, sister of a protester who died in police action.Large-scale violence on May 22 against the Sterlite copper plant and police firing led to the death of 12 persons and the next day saw one more youth succumbing to injuries sustained in police firing.Sterlite Copper is a unit of Vedanta Ltd which operates a 400,000-tonne per annum capacity plant here.Read this story in Marathi