Monitor tanneries, Ryots to collector

District farmers  have urged the administration to constitute flying squads to monitor, prevent tanneries and leather industries from discharging effluents into the water bodies.

They also urged them to take necessary steps to remove the encroachments along the Palar Riverbed.

Collector P Sankar, chairing the monthly farmers’ grievance day meeting on Friday at the collectorate, assured the farmers that appropriate action would be taken to remove the encroachments along the river. “We have devised a scheme to remove the encroachments on Agaram Eri. Similarly, we will rail a plan to make the Palar river free from encroachments.”

The farmers said that the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) had a unit in Vaniyambadi and that they wanted a similar setup in Ambur and Pernmabut area. Besides, they demanded that the district administration constitute flying squads comprising members from the Revenue Department and TNPCB to monitor leather industries.

They also came down heavily against the leather industries that failed to achieve Zero Liquid Discharge in many parts of the district till date.

The Collector said the administration had collected around Rs 6 crore from the polluters. Of them, Rs 4.15 crore were disbursed to the affected farmers as compensation in the last few months. “The remaining Rs 1.15 crore will be handed over the affected farmers, if they approach the officials with documents,” he noted.

Reacting to the farmers’s plea, Sankar said a government employee was electrocuted recently due to a low-hanging EB line and also instructed the TANGEDCO officials to look into the issue at the earliest.