PERUMBAVOOR: Offering a ray of hope for the residents of Perumbavoor, the plywood manufacturers in the region have announced the formation of a new committee to keep a tab on the pollution caused by the companies.The committee will study the cleanliness and hygiene amongst the plywood manufacturing units, said C K Abdul Majeed, general secretary, South Indian Plywood Manufacturers Association. “The committee would act as an independent monitoring body to check if our member companies are sticking to the prescribed standards of hygiene, including sanitation facilities. If any company is found to be deviating from the norms, the owner will be initially warned and if the problem persists, we will cancel the company’s membership with the association,” he said. However, he added that the recurring protests were unethical as none of the protesters had spoken about the issue to the manufacturers directly. “Protests are conducted when talks fail. But here, there were no talks at all. Hence, we also have plans to organise talks with the public and also with those who hold protests against plywood factories so that the actual issues can be sorted out,” he added. “If everything else fails, we will start an indefinite strike and close down all the plywood factories,” said Abdul Majeed.Meanwhile, office-bearers of the Action council for environmental protection, which has been fighting against the environmental pollution caused by plywood factories in the region, stated that they would be willing to hold talks with the association only in the presence of associated government agencies. “We are ready for talks. But it has to be done under the mediatorship of the government since direct talks would not yield any result,” said Varghese Pulluvazhi, chairman of the action council.‘Express’ had earlier reported on the problems faced by the residents of Perumbavoor owing to the environmental pollution caused by the innumerable plywood manufacturing units in the area.
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