CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu environment minister V K Rajeev on Tuesday denied AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami’s allegation that the TVK govt had shut 467 factories in the state.“This is untrue. The factories shut were in the Salem region, encompassing Erode and Namakkal too. Only around 171 factories were shut. Closure, in our regime, happens only when they affect the environment,” the minister told reporters here.The minister said the TVK govt would hold meetings with cracker associations and manufacturers by the end of this month and devise ways to ensure that only green crackers are circulated in Tamil Nadu henceforth for festivals.Admitting that air quality in the state worsened this year, he said most of the cracker manufacturers had already readied and started exporting the crackers for this year even before the TVK formed govt. “I won’t take names, but some of them did not comply with the rules. We are meeting all stakeholders this month and will convince them to only manufacture and supply green crackers,” he said.The minister said he would make a special visit to Valasaravakkam in Chennai, which was the worst-hit area for the third consecutive year, and raise awareness among the public. Chennai’s average AQI on Diwali day was 281 — worst in the last three years — and noise levels recorded between 6pm and midnight on Sunday were the worst since 2017.He dismissed claims that Chinese crackers were being sold in the state. “We will also pass a GO to install 80 low-cost air quality sensors proposed by the TNPCB, and the govt can know the actual data,” he said, adding that data released by independent sensors showing over a 1000 AQI were not accurate.
