Leaders, activists welcome petro zone GO withdrawal

“Though the state government has announced that Cauvery Delta region would be an agricultural protected zone the government should cancel the permission granted for extraction of hydrocarbon by Vedanta and ONGC on October 1, 2018. Only if the above said permission is cancelled the purpose of making Cauvery Delta a protected agricultural zone will be fulfilled,” said Vaiko, in a statement.

Recently, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced that Cauvery Delta would be made an agricultural protected zone and in the just concluded Assembly session the draft Bill on the announcement was introduced. State government’s decision to make Cauvery Delta a protected zone was hailed by farmers. However, Vaiko demanded the state to withdraw the Government Order passed by the state government to make Cuddalore and Nagapattinam as petroleum zones. Along with Vaiko many other environmental activists also demanded the state to withdraw the GO, passed in 2017.

Considering the demands, state government also withdrew the GO. Vaiko said that state government repealing the GO is a success to MDMK and to the farmers.

Reacting on state government repealing the GO, Poovulagin Nanbargal Coordinator G Sundararajan though welcomed the decision also demanded the state to repeal all the announced petroleum projects. “We welcome the decision of the state government to repeal the GO on Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR). However, the state government should also cancel the recent deal signed to setup Haldia Petro Chemical complex at the cost of Rs 50,000 crore in Cuddalore and to stop the expansion of the CPCL petroleum refinery in Nagapattinam,” said Sundararajan.