The proliferation of private residential layouts in industrial areas in gross violation of the zoning regulations, and the complaint from the newly-settled residents of “industrial pollution” has drawn the ire of factory workers in the city.
Scores of workers under the aegis of the All-India Trade Union Congress staged a demonstration here on Wednesday and expressed concern that it was a ploy by the real estate mafia and vested interest groups to evict the factories from their existing locations.
The triggering factor was the complaint lodged by a few residents’ associations with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board that they were plagued by air and noise pollution from local industries and hence the latter should be asked to relocate.
But local industries have argued that residential layouts had cropped in violation of the zoning laws and pollution norms for notified industrial areas was higher than what is prescribed for residential layouts. The AITUC said many of the factories in Mysuru like J.K. Tyres, Mysore Polymers and scores of other units were functioning since the last four decades and had provided job opportunities to nearly 15,000 workers.
It said the complaints to pollution control board by the illegal layouts were nothing short of harassment to the industries, which could affect the future of the workers. The AITUC said change of land use pattern and NoC to it had led to the illegal proliferation of private residential layouts, apartments, choultries, and educational institutions.
Hence, it has urged the government to ensure that industrial land was not converted into non-industrial usage, declare a green belt within a 1-km radius around industrial areas, and ensure that no residential areas are permitted there.
‘Complaints to pollution control board by illegal layouts is nothing short of harassment to industries’
