VELLORE: Vellore Collector C. Rajendran has asked tanneries in Vellore district to strictly follow the safety protocol stipulated by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) while engaging its workers to clean effluent tanks on their premises. He said this at meetings with tannery owners of Ambur, Vaniyambadi and Pernambut convened by him on the premises of the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) run by the Vaniyambadi Effluent Treatment Company Limited (VANITEC) in Vaniyambadi on Tuesday morning and with owners of tanneries in Ranipet and Melvisharam convened at the Collectorate here in the evening. The meetings were held in the light of the accident in a tannery at Vaniyambadi on April 30 when five workers were asphyxiated, while cleaning an effluent tank. Mohammed Ghani, Inspector of Factories, Vellore, said it was the duty of the tannery owners to take all precautionary measures to avoid accidents on their premises. In the case of the Vaniyambadi accident, he said that the management had allowed the workers to enter the effluent tank and manually clean it without following the stipulated safety measures despite knowing the dangers involved.