The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Tirupur Corporation crackdown on dyeing units in residential areas

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Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tirupur Corporation crackdown on dyeing units in residential areas

Special Correspondent

‘Such units pose health hazards to the public’

– Photo: M. Balaji

PUNITIVE ACTION: Tirupur Mayor K. Selvaraj oversees the disconnection of a drinking water line of a building where an unauthorised dyeing unit had been functioning.

TIRUPUR: The health department of the Tirupur Corporation is keeping a close watch on residential colonies, following the detection of three illegal dyeing units in two colonies on Saturday. The civic body said such units posed health hazards to the public because of unsafe discharge of untreated effluents.

The three units detected at L.R.G. Nagar and Kongu Nagar had discharged untreated effluents into the drainage. Following complaints from residents that bore well water was polluted, Mayor K. Selvaraj and Corporation Health Officer K.R. Jawahar carried out a surprise check in these areas.

After seeing the unsafe discharge of effluents, the Mayor ordered the disconnection of drinking water lines to these buildings. First, the units had been functioning unauthorisedly on residential premises. Second, the waste water was not treated. Holding these two as sufficient cases against the units, the Mayor ordered the punitive action.

According to the health officer, such units posed serious hazards to their own workers. On the one hand, untreated waste would pollute the environs. On the other, workers would also be affected in the form of skin diseases if they did not wear gloves. Safety measures were always missing in such units.

Asked whether special teams had been formed to detect such units elsewhere in the city, Mr. Jawahar said 13 Sanitary Inspectors and 13 Sanitary Supervisors of the health wing would inspect buildings in all the 52 wards to check whether unauthorised dyeing units functioned in these. They would carry out checks in their respective areas.

The Mayor had asked the public to inform the Corporation of such units. “A resident informed us on Monday evening of a dyeing unit in a house. We are checking on it,” Mr. Jawahar said.

The health officer said Section 35 of the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939 prohibited the discharge of waste water in storm water drains. Action could be initiated under the provisions of this section and also for causing nuisance to the public.

People must understand that rules forbade the functioning of dyeing units in residential areas. Separate industrial zones had been marked for them, he said.

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