Tiruppur in Deep trouble

Business activity in the knitwear town of Tirupur came to a standstill as units stopped operations on Tuesday in a dawn-to-dusk shutdown to highlight the plight of the industry following the Madras high court directive to close the polluting dyeing units.

The strike was organised by all the major trade unions in Tirupur including AITUC and INTUC to draw the attention of the central and state governments to the crisis faced by the garment knitwear industry.

Tirupur, which exports garments worth about `10,000 crore a year and employs nearly 4 lakh workers, is home to close to 5,000 units. Business to the tune of about `45 crore was affected.

Dyeing units in Tirupur process about 4 lakh kgs of fabric a day while bleaching units take up to 1 lakh kg. With large sections of the industry stating that zero liquid discharge (ZLD) is virtually impossible, the focus has now shifted to other options including taking up marine discharge, which has not much moved beyond discussions.

However, a section of the industry believes that the government should collect the wastewater and treat it for which charges can be levied. This is being done in Surat and can be replicated here as well, industry sources said.

"ZLD is not feasible. Marine discharge could also throw up litigation. We can maintain total dissolved solid (TDS) below 2,100 levels. This can be an interim solution," they said.