‘All Kanpur tanneries to be shifted by July’

KANPUR: Ending speculations on fate of tanneries situated in Kanpur’s Jajmau area, minister for irrigation Dharampal Singh on Tuesday said all leather units polluting Ganga would be shifted from here by coming July.

Insisting that the state government was serious about growing pollution in Ganga due to tannery waste, the minister said it had been decided to relocate the tanneries to some other suitable place. “A few sites are under consideration and the best from amongst them would be given to the industry,” he said.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT), meanwhile, has fixed April 19 (Wednesday) to give its decision over shifting of tanneries. The NGT has directed the state government to inform it about the minimum required environmental flow (E-Flow) in the river for the existence of aquatic life in the river at the next hearing.

The NGT bench headed by Justice Swatantra Kumar observed during the hearing on April 17 that unless the check on the excess water extraction from the river and pollutants was maintained, the river could not be kept clean. The bench directed the union government to specify the quantity of water extraction within a distance of 543 kilometre from Haridwar to Unnao. The chairman of the Council For Leather Export Mukhtarul Amin has asked the government to improve the waste water management system instead of proposing to shift the tanneries to another site.

The shifting of tanneries from Jajmau would affect trade worth Rs 3500 crore and it would render jobless over a lakh people, he claimed.