The Madras High Court ordered of closure of Dyeing & Bleaching units in Tirupur

The Madras High Court has ordered the closure of all dyeing and bleaching units in Tirupur, which generates a fifth of India's textile exports. The move will affect around 720 units, employing 40,000-50,000 workers, and cause an estimated loss of Rs 50 crore a day.

On Friday, the bench was hearing a contempt petition on the pollution of Noyyal River flowing through Tirupur. It observed that the dyeing units were polluting the river and couldn't function until zero discharge was achieved.

"I cannot comment on the court order. But this would bring Tirupur to a standstill and would cause a loss of around Rs 50 crore per day to the industry. We have just come out of the yarn problem and now this has cropped up. Around 50,000 workers would be affected," said A Sakthivel, President of the Tirupur Exporters Association ( TEA )). "Exports would also take a beating because of this move."

He urged the state and central government to consider the seriousness of this issue and come forward to bail out the units.

The public interest litigation against the units was filed way back in 1996 and sought directions from the high court for a pollution-free Noyyal river. The petitioner who filed it said dyeing and bleaching units are discharging industrial effluents into the river, making the water unfit for irrigation and other purposes. Despite several orders for closure from the Madras High Court, no steps were taken, which led to the filing of the present contempt petition, the petitioner said.

'No Tirupur without dyeing factories'

The court strictly instructed the closure of these units and also directed the state pollution control board to initiate criminal prosecution of units which fail to rectify defects leading to pollution. "There is no Tirupur without dyeing factories," said N Murali, Tirupur Exporters and Manufacturers Association vice-president and Rajshree Exports managing director. He said it is not possible to comply with zero-level discharge as even the ground water and well water contains some salt. There are around 5,000 units in Tirupur engaged in various activities related to knitwear exports employing more than four lakh workers. The city is host to a number of knitwear export firms.

"The industry is already struggling with high production cost due to 100% increase in cotton prices and 70% increase in cotton yarn prices in the last one year. The euro and dollar fluctuations have also been hitting us badly. Now this closure of all dyeing units will further dent our future," he added.

Industry veteran and Tirupur Exporters' Association general secretary G Karthikeyan said the city itself will become idle without any dyeing activity. "We are facing a crisis, which has never been faced by the industry so far.

Livelihood of nearly 10 lakh people living in Tirupur will be affected because of this action. The whole city is dependent on export activity," he added. When contacted, K Krishnan, secretary of Dyeing Association of Tirupur said: "All the running dyeing units in Tirupur have 'consent to operate' certificate from pollution control board. But the court wants a more appropriate certificate to prove zero-level discharge. We will plan our action after receiving the complete judgment copy."