VELLORE: One month, to the day, after the TNPCB issued closure orders and suspended the power connections to 86 member units of the Ranipet SIDCO Finished Leather Effluent Treatment Company following the tragic accident on January 31 that killed 10 workers, several hundred workers from six leather companies sought the intervention of the district administration to lift the closure orders so that they may resume work.
The workers pleaded that punishing them for the wrong doings of others was not right. Closure orders and the suspension of power supply (both High Tension and Low Tension) lines to all 86 member units of the CETP were issued by the TNPCB immediately after the tragic accident on January 31.
“The closure orders are not justifiable. Instead of taking action against the persons responsible for the accident, they cannot simply issue closure orders and suspend power connection. We (workers of the tannery companies) are ultimately suffering because of the greed of others,” said 40-year-old G Ramesh, a technician of a leather company.
Ramesh was one of around 400 workers from six companies who had come to the Collectorate on Monday seeking the intervention of the district administration.
“How will we feed our children, support their studies and pay rent?” questioned Padma Priya, a worker at a leather company, and a group of women workers. They added they were suffering because of the failure of TNPCB to enforce safety standards and the mismanagement of the board of directors of the CETP.
They claimed that around 50,000 families directly and indirectly depended on work in the tanneries and with the closure, their lives have been thrown into uncertainty.
“We have been working in these tannery companies for years and we don’t know any other work. If the companies are not opened immediately, we will starve,” said K Nataraj, another worker.
The representatives of the workers submitted a petition to Collector R Nanthagopal, pleading for necessary steps to restore the power connection. They also requested the management to pay half the amount of salaries they were earning as workers during the layoff period. “We have not received a paisa as salary for the month of February from the company,” said one of the workers
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