Tamil Nadu taking steps to close Sterlite factory: CM
Chennai, May 24: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami said on Thursday that his government was taking all steps to close the Sterlite factory at Thoothukudi after 13 people were killed in protests against it.
Palaniswami told the media that the AIADMK government was taking the legal route to ensure that the Sterlite Copper Smelter plant was shut down.
He said people in the region had been protesting peacefully for long against the company, alleging that it was causing health hazards and depleting the water table, but this time the opposition and "anti-social elements" had turned the movement violent.
"It is because of this instigation that so many people have died. And we are really saddened by the deaths," he said.
He added that in April Sterlite approached the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to continue running the factory but the permission was denied.
But the management got a favourable order from the National Green Tribunal. The Tamil Nadu government had moved the Supreme Court against the NGT ruling.
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Bangladesh's interim govt revokes ousted PM Sheikh Hasina's passport
Dhaka, Jan 7: Bangladesh's interim government on Tuesday said it has revoked the passport of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 96 others over their alleged involvement in enforced disappearances and the July killings.
Hasina, 77, has been living in India since August 5 last year when she fled Bangladesh following a massive student-led protest that toppled her Awami League's (AL) 16-year regime.
Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has issued arrest warrants for Hasina and several former Cabinet ministers, advisers, and military and civil officials for “crimes against humanity and genocide”.
Addressing a press briefing here, Chief Adviser's Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder said, "The Passports Department cancelled passports of 22 people involved in enforced disappearances, while passports of 75 people, including Sheikh Hasina, were revoked due to their involvement in the July killings.”
He, however, did not reveal the names of the remaining individuals whose passports were cancelled, the state-run BSS news agency reported.
