TNPCB closes down 10 dyeing units

Tirupur: The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) on Thursday ordered closure of 10 dyeing units in the Tirupur knitwear cluster which failed to comply with the Supreme Court order pertaining to pollution caused by the dyeing units on River Noyyal.

The power and water supply to these units was also disconnected.

TNPCB District Environmental Engineer R. Kannan told The Hindu that the said 10 dyeing units, which had Individual Effluent Treatment Plants (IETPs) on their premises, had failed to ensure Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) during the treatment of the effluents and hence, the action.

“The units have been found discharging the untreated effluent into River Noyyal,” he said.

The closure orders, according to Mr. Kannan, have been issued under Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. Mr. Kannan said that already a total of 53 units affiliated to Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) remain closed for either failing to remit the fines imposed for polluting River Noyyal or being the members of those CETPs which failed to fit ZLD.

Rs. 200 cr. allotment to dyeing units waste of tax payers' money, say farmers

Tirupur: The clearance given by Parliament to the sanctioning of Rs. 200 crore by the Central Government to offset the project cost incurred for the 20 Common Effluent treatment Plants (CETPs) in Tirupur has been evoking varied response.

The Rs. 200-croreis the partake of Central Government to the Rs. 320 crore allocation promised for the dyeing units who shared the cost of setting up CETPs with the remaining share to be given by the State Government.

Though the industrial associations like Tirupur Exporters Association and Dyers Association of Tirupur had welcomed the decision, farmers' community who faced the brunt of the high pollution in River Noyyal owing to indiscriminate industrial effluent discharge during the last few decades feels that it was a waste of tax payers' money.

“From our past experience, it can be said for sure that any amount distributed to dyers' fraternity will only benefit them to increase their book profits instead of serving the purpose of stopping the industrial effluent discharge into River Noyyal,” Noyyal River Ayacutdars Protection Association (NRAPA) A. P. Kandasamy told The Hindu.

Mr. Kandasamy also referred to the writ petition the Association was forced to file in the Madras High Court after a government study found that Total Dissolved Solids levels in Noyyal had gone up to 5,100 ppm (parts per million) against the permissible limit of 2,100 ppm.

“Remember, this took place despite the Supreme Court directive which asked the dyeing units to ensure zero liquid discharge from January 6 this year and after commissioning the CETPs,” he said. He said that the SC directive came following a 14-year legal battle the Association waged against the dyeing units.K. Duraisamy, president of Tirupur District Groundwater Protection Committee, said that when Supreme Court itself had stated in the verdict in the Public Interest Litigation filed by NRAPA that ‘polluters pay', why then the government allocated grants to the dyeing units.

TN plans Noyyal land retrieval

Chennai, Sept. 4: The textile plants of Tirupur, Erode and Karur in western Tamil Nadu may have earned thousands of crores of rupees in foreign exchange, but their impact on the environment has been equally dismal.

The knitwear hub of Tirupur alone has been using one lakh tonnes of salt a year for dyeing and a study has pointed out that the effluents had affected more than 10,000 acres of fertile land along the Noyyal River.

While the farmers are waging a futile battle to get compensation, the state planning commission has come out with a proposal to reclaim the land by planting saplings of Casuarina, which can withstand high saline content besides going in for natural dye plants such as indigofera tinctoria.

During the recent conference of district collectors chief minister M. Karunanidhi, directed officials to work out the plan with the farmers’ cooperation.

“We have identified 5.5 acre land along the Noyyal River in Kangeyam taluk and will be planting natural dye (indigofera) saplings and casuarinas on a pilot basis,” the Tirupur Collector, Mr C. Samayamoorthy, told DC. The district administration is also planning to set up a natural dye extraction plant since it would not require huge investment or technology. “We are planning to give incentive to the farmers (`5,000 per acre) to take up the cultivation,” the collector added.

Planning commission member and retired IFS officer G. Kumaravelu, who mooted the proposal, said it would help farmers gain more income.