We came to know that 11 agitators have been killed and more than 30 injured in Police firing in Thoothukkudi, Tamilnadu who were part of a People’s march protesting the pollution of drinking water and the environment in the entire area from the Sterillite Copper Project, a Corporate Giant Vedanta Group Company. The agitators were protesting for a long period against the anti people Copper Project of Corporate Giant Sterrilite. Due to a Gas leak in the project in 2013, the then Chief Minister J Jayalalitha had ordered its closure. But the Company re-opened after succeeding in getting a court order in their favour. The people were also continuing their agitation against the project. The State Government did not take any serious step to settle the problem till date which escalated the people’s anger as they were suffering a lot due to the pollution of the waterbodies and environment nearby the project. The greedi Corporate also getting support from the Central and State Governments did not give any care to the genuine protest of the people.
We now strongly condemn the heinous action of the police. We demand immediate arrest of all police officials responsible for firing and register criminal cases against them for murder, adequate compensation to the nearest relatives of the martyrs and injured people, proper enquiry of the incident and immediate closure of the project.
We request all the democratic minded people to declare solidarity with the struggling people of Thoothukudy and come out in the streets against the Corporate loot of natural resources and human labour power.
We also convey our condolences to the bereaved members of the family of martyrs in the police firing. We also salute the martyrs and struggling people of Thoothukudy.
Pradip Singh Thakur
General Secretary
National Committee
All India Krantikari Kisan Sabha
