TEA seeks PM's intervention on dyeing units crisis

Coimbatore, Jan 3 (UNI) The Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) has sought the intervention of Prime Minister, Union Finance Minister and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to the solve the crisis following the indefinte stoppage of operation by the dyeing and bleaching units, which entered the third day today.

In identical letters to the minister, TEA President A Sakthivel, highlighted the need for filing a review petition in Madras Hight Court and pleaded for stopping the proceedings of the interim orders of the court passed on December 22.

More than 700 dyeing and bleaching units stopped functioning since Monday following the High Court notice to pay a penalty of six to ten paise per litre for letting out effluents into Noyyal till they install Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) and Reverse Osmosis Units for zero effluent discharge.

He sought the Centre's immediate intervention to evolve a suitable zero discharge/marine discharge project, as this only would bring a permanent solution to help the textile belt of Tamil Nadu.

Stating that the association could execute the marine discharge project on the lines of the new Tirupur water project, he urged the Union Government to allocate Rs 600 crore for implmenting the project and also to find a permanent solution to the problems of dyeing and bleaching units.

If the strike continued Rs 9,000 crore of foreign exchange would be lost, render more than 500 workers jobless. Besides over Rs 25,000 crore investment in the units would go unutlied, he added.

UNI