The Union Textiles Ministry has constituted a high-level committee to study the functioning of Arulpuram Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) and to advise the government on technical solutions for ensuring zero liquid discharge in the dyeing process, among other issues.
According to a communiqué received at Tirupur Exporters Association, the committee has Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, renowned agriculture scientist, as its chairman and V. Srinivas, joint secretary of textiles, GoI, as its convener. The members of the committee include M.S. Ananth, former director of IIT-Madras; G.D. Yadav, Vice-Chancellor of University Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai; M.L. Gulrajani, Chair Professor (Textile technology), IIT-Delhi; S. Prabhakar, scientist, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai; and Sudha Nair, Scientist, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. The committee will be visiting the cluster to study, assess and advice on the technical solutions proposed by Tamil Nadu Water Investment Company for ensuring ZLD norms in the cluster. The trial run carried out by Arulpuram CETP for testing the ZLD gadgets installed on its premises would be observed by the committee. The farming community has expressed surprise over the formation of committee with M.S. Swaminathan, who always campaigned for the farmers’ right, as the chairman who, according to them, had a career all through in the field of agriculture. They feel that Prof. Swaminathan should not accept this assignment of advicing the same dyeing units which had destroyed the livelihood of lakhs of farmers through indiscriminate discharge of effluents into the River Noyyal.
