Dyeing units withdraw agitation

Chennai, Jan 5 (UNI) The indefinite strike called by the Dyers Association of Tirupur (DAT), comprising nearly 500 dyeing/bleaching units, was called off today after the Tamil Nadu Government assured them of necessary assistance to help them resolve their problems.

'The dyers have decided to withdraw the strike as the Government has assured the industry to help its future plans,' Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) President A Sakthivel told UNI after participating in a talk with State Ministers and officials at the Secretariat here.

However, the Government had made it clear that it could not interfere in the pollution issue as the Madras High Court was involved, he said.

Public Works Minister Duraimurugan, Handlooms Minister N K K P Raja and Rural Industries Minister Pongalur Palanissamy, Chief Secretary L K Tripathy and other officials held talks with industry representatives including DAT Acting President Mr Krishnan.

Tirupur MP Subbarayan and legislator C Govindasamy were also present at the meeting.

Dyeing and bleaching units in the hosiery town of Tirupur stopped work from January one, 2007 in the wake of the Madras High Court ruling last month asking them to bear a penal levy of six paise per litre of effluent discharged by them on a daily basis from this month.

This meant dyeing units had to pay an average penalty of Rs 80 lakh every day for the next seven months, industry sources said.

Stating that the Government could not do much in the matter as the problem was between the High Court and the dyers, Mr Duraimurgan told UNI that the Government had urged the dyers to abide by the High Court ruling.

'We advised them to go for a revision petition if they have any grievances,' he said.

Industry sources expressed apprehension that the current crisis faced by the knitwear processing houses would backfire on investments that had gone into forward and backward integration projects initiated in recent times by export companies.

UNI