Continuing their action against illegal dyeing units in Salem district, a team of officials from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and Department of Revenue on Thursday carried out raids against dyeing units in Sivadapuram in the city and pulled down 20 of them, which were found to be illegal.
In the ‘Operation Demolition' in Salem district, which began on Tuesday, so far a total of 60 units, including 40 in Edapadi town and 20 in Salem city have been pulled down. They have been polluting the water bodies.
The team led by Pollution Control Board's Divisional Engineer A. Thangapandian and P. S Pandian and Salem Revenue Divisional Officer S. Prasanna Ramasamy inspected the areas of Sivadapuram and Kondalampatti where many dyeing units had mushroomed recently and been functioning. After verifying their documents, the team had found five of the units had violated all pollution norms.
The officials ordered the immediate dismantling of the units by removing the machinery and demolishing the cement tanks and make-shift roofing.
Officials claimed that after the stringent action in Tirupur against polluting dyers, they, to hoodwink the law enforcers, had set up their units at various places in the Western Zone such as Salem, Erode, Namakkal and Edapadi.
“We are undertaking a detailed inspection against the dyeing units in another two days to ascertain whether they conform to all rules and regulations and to weed out the rogue elements which have silently crept amid licensed dyers in Salem district,” said a senior Revenue official.
