District Collector S.Jayandhi has told textile dyeing unit operators and exporters that she could do nothing more on the proposal to establish a dyeing park at Punnam as the State government was intent on accommodating the interests of the locals who had militated against the establishment of the park citing negative environmental impact.
Some textile exporters and dyeing unit owners had sought to take advantage of the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s announcement at a Collectors’ conclave on establishing an integrated dyeing park in Karur district to address the needs of the textile industry affected by pollution-management issues.
The plan took off with Environment Minister M.C.Sampath inspecting the proposed site a couple of months ago.
Subsequently, public opposition forced the the State government to drop the plan like a hot potato.
For the better part of the last month the issue was simmering in the textile industry circle that decided to seek the intervention of the district administration in pushing the plan ahead.
On Tuesday, they pleaded their case passionately saying they were passing through a harrowing time at the apex of which stood the pollution problems.
Listing the “procedural setbacks” that upset the dyeing park plan, the operators on Tuesday cited “anonymous” public opposition in the village and asked the Collector to address the issue.
Raising the bogey of industrial negative growth in Karur if the park plan were to be stalled , the exporters promised to demonstrate the pollution control aspects and adhere to zero liquid discharge norms besides promising that the stakeholder would ensure that no ecological disturbances would result.
But all that came to a naught as Ms.Jayandhi firmly told them she herself had seen industrial effluents being dumped in the Amaravathy river bed. Many dyeing units had subverted the law to operate outside the ambit of pollution control norms but the pity was that the culprits could not be pinned down in many cases.
But that did not absolve the dyeing units of their responsibility towards ecology and humanity, she told her stunned audience.
Ms. Jayandhi said that as the District Collector she was there to implement the directives and policies of the State government.
“The Chief Minister wants to implement scheme that only benefit the public and not those that they oppose. No way could you think of the park coming up at Punnam. You find an alternative site and also convince locals of your genuine intentions and then we’ll see,” she said.
