Vedanta Limited has told the Supreme Court that the Tamil Nadu government should not be allowed to take over its Rs 150-crore oxygen plant in the state even as the main political parties of Tamil Nadu have agreed on Monday to let Vedanta operate its oxygen plant alone with some riders.

However, the parties said in their joint resolution that under no circumstances should Vedanta be allowed to re-start any of its other facilities at the Thoothukudi factory. The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board will provide power to the plant for four months.

A state-appointed monitoring committee will periodically oversee the unit. The all-party meet also demanded that Vedanta should first meet the oxygen requirements of Tamil Nadu before sending cylinders to other states.

In an affidavit filed before the top court, Vedanta had said: “ Running the plant was beyond the competence of the government and would lead to the production of sub-standard oxygen.”

Instead, the company had urged the apex court to permit it to operate the plant under the supervision of an independent body.

The apex court will take up the company’s affidavit on Tuesday along with the views of the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government on the issue.

The court had last week sought the response of the two governments on Vedanta’s plea to reopen the closed plant for daily production of 1,050 million tonnes of oxygen.

The plant is closed since May 2018 following incidents of violence and police firing in which 13 persons had died.

Appointments

Vedanta Ltd on Monday announced the elevation of Sauvick Mazumdar as the the CEO of the company’s iron and steel business. The company, in a statement, also said that N. L. Vhatte, who was director, Vedanta-value added business, will take up the role of CEO, ESL Steel.