Farmers happy at revival plans for dyeing units in Tirupur

R. Vimal Kumar, the Hindu dated August 5, 2011

The bouquet of initiatives that the State government announced recently for rejuvenation of Tirupur dyeing industry is offering farmers and environmentalists some reason to cheer about, as it has clearly put an end to speculations on effluent treatment methods doing rounds in the cluster.

“Though there may not be many significant steps announced that could make an immediate change to the status quo in the dyeing industry crisis, it is heartening that the government had given a clear message that zero liquid discharge (ZLD) norms are going to stay in the effluent treatment process from now, in line with the judicial pronouncements,” P. Sankarnarayan, an environmental activist hailing from the farmers' community, said.

Plea to Govt.

Ever since the dyeing units were closed by Madras High Court on January 28, a large section of the industry and other stakeholders have been appealing to the government either to allow discharge of treated effluents at 2,100 ppm (parts per million) or to take such effluents for marine discharge, a technique that was exposed badly in Gujarat.

Some of the leading associations even had ridiculed the concept of ZLD stating that such technology or criteria did not exist anywhere in the globe.

Exposed

However, the claims of ‘non-existence of ZLD methodology' got exposed within no time. This was when some of the dyeing units run by the representatives of the associations obtained the sanction to restart the operations after the units proved their ZLD capabilities before authorities concerned even while they were propagating opposite versions.

The farmers' fraternity is happy that the revival package released by the government did not even consider the appeals of a certain segment of the industry asking the government to take over the effluent treatment plants.

Tax payers' money

“Why should government waste the tax payers' money for treatment of effluents generated by industrialists who are doing the business only for their fortunes, and such takeovers are not possible as Tirupur is not the only industrial cluster in the State,” P. Rathinasamy, a coconut and gooseberry farmer, who encountered the brunt of industrial pollution along River Noyyal, said.