Ban Copper Sterlite

Her face glowed in the afternoon sunlight. Her thick eyebrows and sharp eyes moved left to right as she skimmed the salt analysis notes one last time.

Born to an educated family, Sakena aspired to become a teacher whereas her elder brother Nousath Ali was busy preparing for his IAS mains with history as his optional subject. It was mandatory for Sakena to read the newspaper everyday to know about the whereabouts happening in and around the city and discuss it with Nousath post dinner.

The school bell rang and a group of 50 students entered the chemistry lab one by one wearing a white coloured lab coat. When her turn came she choose a blue coloured salt. She stood at her place looking at the burette and refilling her holder with new test tubes.

“Your time starts now” stormed the external examiner.

She did her basic acid test by adding a few drops of Hcl to the pinch of salt provided to her. A thick yet suffocating smell blocked her pierced nose indicating the presence of sulphate in it. She further added Bacl2 to confirm it. Once confirmed, her heart felt light.

Without giving a second thought she prepared the original solution and added few drops of NH4OH.

“Maybe CU2”, she wrote below the inference column.

She raised her hands among others and her internal signalled her to come on the podium.

“Your salt”.

She didn’t reply.

“What happened Sakeena”, her teacher asked anxiously.

“BAN STERLITE”, these two words banged inside her head. She recalled about this protest which her brother was fuming about since once month.

"How one industrial project is affecting many many innocent lives through means of air, water and land".

"How people have come together to stand against the plant producing toxic effluents such as arsenic, lead, cadminum and mercury releasing every single day".

The company hasn’t obeyed any ground rules such as developing a green belt around 25 meters or setting up the plant 25 kms from the Gulf of Mannar nor maintain the pollution level governed by TN Pollution control board and the Ministry of Environment and forests pollution and more importantly none of the government officials have checked it properly nor considered the consequences seriously.

“Rules are meant to be broken”, maybe the head of Vedanta Ltd, Anil Agarwal took these lines seriously”, Nousath added. He began his life as scrap dealer and at present considered as an industrialist supporting Digital India.

Bhaiya, if so many innocent lives (people who work inside the industry and neighbourhood) are killed since two decades, why it hasn’t come to the limelight? And why people all of the sudden are protesting?, enquired Sakena.

“Good question! Majority of the people accepted this project only because of the economic development and job opportunities” but when medicines replaced the staple food, all stood up. Also, the vedanta group has planned to expand the plant as they are the biggest source for producing copper in India, so is the protest.

“Can't the government take immediate action”, questioned Sakeena.

“Sakeena, you’re wasting our time. Are you there?, the internal examiner snapped her fingers.

“Yes mam”, her face look horrified.

“Do you want water”

“Yes mam, please".

"I will take care of her. You carry on", smiled the external examiner.

“Sakeena, so tell me what were you thinking about”.

“Sir, May I ask you a question”, she raised her voice.

“Yes please”, he asked patiently.

"How do you correct our papers"?

Pardon

"How do you correct our exam papers?

"Hmmm, as per the keywords and right answers provided for each question".

"When you follow these rules, why not the rulers sir"?

Just because our life shouldn’t be wasted, you tell us not to bring colored bottles, digital calculators, not to wear coloured ribbons, not to plait our hair, not to wear shoes and socks etc and also send flying squads to check if anyone of us are malpracticing!

If anyone under such case gets caught, We are EXPELLED!

You instill fear and stay strict with us for our goodwill!

"But what about the large scale industries who produce toxic chemicals in abundant quantities sir"?

"What about the people who don’t follow rules sir"?

"What about the people who break these rules"?

"Why aren’t you strict with them"?

Put rules for them and make sure they follow it sir. We are the change makers. I don't think we need them anymore.

Our history is changing! We fought for Jallikatu, fighting for our farmers, cauvery issue, hydrocarbon project and now sterlite.

We are fighting and will fight and win but you?

The examiner didn’t utter a word. His face described his emotion: blank.

My salt is Copper Sulphate.

"Do you have any other questions sir"?

"No, you may go".

Sakeena entered her room silently.

"Are you okay", Nousath asked.

"Yeah bhaiya. I am".

"What happened Sakeena"? This is not you!

She explained what happened.

I am proud of you girl!

No my young lady!

"You’re a change maker. You have done what you could".

"Maybe I must study Civil service", she opened up.

No, power isn’t everything. Knowledge and awareness is a key to attain success.

You must become an educator, understand people’s mindset and bring a change!

Like Abdul Kalam sir said "If you have a dream, continuously acquire knowledge, hardwork and perseverance”, they sang together holding each other.

This story is based on a real incident happening across the pearl city at present where 13 innocent lives were shot dead mercilessly without any warnings. These people asked to #bansterlite for saving thier generation and future offsprings. Nothing much.

Currently many are suffering from cancer, skin allergies and asthma and none of their effluents are converted into byproducts.

Only proper education and awareness can change this situation.

Today its Tuticorn tomorrow it maybe your city.

Stand up.

Bansterlite

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