Did the gas leak occur in Sterlite or Ramesh Flowers?
A Ganesh Nadar in Tuticorin On the 5th of July, 1997, Sterlite was back in the news. Controversy never seems to subside as for as Sterlite is concerned. When they came to Tuticorin in 1994, the people rose up in protest. The reason: they were thrown out of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, therefore something must be wrong with them. When they tried to lay a waste disposal pipeline into the sea, one man, Anton Gomez, went on a hunger-strike and they had to give up the pipeline idea. After many hiccups, they managed to start this year. Since then the 10 billion copper smelting plant has stopped production twice. First, when they had technical problems, and second, when there was no water. On the midnight of the 5th of July, they were asked to stop the plant on the express orders of the district collector. The order was not delivered by a peon or junior officer. It was personally delivered by Tuticorin Subcollector Sandeep Jain. What had Sterlite done to have an Indian Administrative Service off
