About 500 owners and workers of small manual dyeing units in and around Komarapalayam in Tiruchengode taluk went on a token fast on Saturday alleging that Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) officials showed partiality in evicting illegal dyeing units. “They are victimising smaller units, while bigger ones continue to pollute the river on a large scale,” they said. The hunger strike led by the president of the Small Scale Dyeing Units Association, G.K. Prabakaran, was organised at the Pallipalayam Road Junction. “Thousands of labourers are working in the small manual dyeing units in and around Komarapalayam and Pallipalayam towns for about four decades,” owners of the small dyeing units said. Mr. Prabakaran alleged that TNPCB officials spared the close to 50 big dyeing units near Komarapalayam and each of them dump more than five lakh litres of effluents into the river everyday. “About half-a-dozen of them are located on the banks of the river, but they have not been evicted,” he added. The dyeing unit owners opined that setting up of a common effluent treatment plant – that is funded by the government – has been their demand to put an end to the pollution menace. District Environmental Engineer M. Murugan denied that they showed any partiality to big units.