Power to 10 Tanneries cut

ERODE: In the wake of the action taken against 10 tannery units here, a large number of small tanners gheraoed Erode Revenue Divisional Officer Sugumaran on Tuesday. The incident took place in a unit of the Agraharam leather industrial cottage co-operative society at Maravapalayam. Earlier, the ryots in the area had complained to the Collector that the industrial units were discharging effluents into the Kalingarayan irrigation canal. Following this, Collector Dr R Anandakumar visited some tannery units three days ago to inspect the pollution control measures taken by them. Subsequently, power supply to three tannery units were disconnected. Similar action was taken against seven other units.At 3.45 pm on Tuesday, a large number of small tanners came to the society office and picketed the building. They also blocked the movement of the RDO for nearly three hours. Later, a large posse of policemen led by DSP Gunasekaran was posted there. The RDO rejected their plea, seeking four days’ time to process the goods within the units. Anandakumar said he was acting as per an order from the High Court and Collector on 2007. The society officials reasoned that if power was disconnected, they have to bear the responsibility for over `10 lakh worth of skins kept for processing.Road RokoMany small tanners and tannery unit workers staged a road-roko on the Erode-Agraharam road at Agraharam over the action taken against the tannery units. The police used mild force to disperse the agitators. Small tanners association president Shanmugam T K Shanmugam said, “Small tanners used the tanneries for processing skins. On an average, `50 crore worth of goods were locked in the units.”