The Tamil Nadu government has issued orders to upgrade two of its cement plants with an investment of around Rs 515 crore. Besides, it has sanctioned Rs 67.46 crore for Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited (TNPL) to set up a cement plant, which will mark the company’s foray into the sector.

An environmental activist has sought details from State Environment Department whether interest-free loans have been given to Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) in Tirupur as reported in the media.

He asked why so many CETPs were running to test zero liquid discharge (ZLD) systems on trial basis. In a ‘personal notice' sent to the Principal Secretary (Environment and Forests) to State Government,

To make monitoring of effluent discharge by dyeing units in Tirupur and Erode districts more effective, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) will have an online water quality monitoring system this year in the Noyyal river and Kalingarayan canal.

In the policy note tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday, Environment Minister B.V. Ramanaa said the process of procurement of instruments for continuous online monitoring of water quality in Noyyal river and Kalingarayan canal will be completed by May 31.

‘Initiate criminal action against those running such units'

After a brief lull, the menace of illegal dyeing units has resurfaced in the Tirupur-Namakkal belt. The units have come up even after the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board carried out an extensive demolition drive a few months ago.

An individual from Valayapalayam in Aravakurichi Taluk of Karur district has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court Bench here to quash a Government Order passed on December 31 sanctioning an interest bearing advance of Rs. 75 crore to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board for payment of compensation to 535 members of Noyyal River Ayacutdars' Protection Association.

Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) in the last few days raided three dyeing units and two bleaching units in the Tirupur knitwear cluster engaged in unauthorised operations and discharging effluents. The raids ended on Tuesday.

Of the five units, two of them are in the organised sector and the remaining were run without obtaining basic permission required from various departments concerned for running any industrial unit, TNPCB sources told The Hindu .

The growing need for land for industrial and residential purposes has resulted in lands under agriculture shrinking by 10 to 15 per cent per annum in Coimbatore, Erode and Tirupur districts.

Top officials in the Agriculture Department, pointing out to the statistics discussed by the State Planning Commission at its recent meetings, say that in these districts, the total extent of land under agriculture has come down by 1.50 lakh hectares over the last three years.

Off the Ukkadam – Sundakkamuthur Road, about a km away, in the midst of banana farms lie three or four thatched roofed temporary structures.

At first sight they appear to be houses or sheds for watchmen. But they are not. They are not even mushroom cultivation farms, as a board outside one of the sheds claims. They are yarn dyeing units.