Farmers and environmentalists have expressed anguish over the recent sanctioning of Rs. 127.4 crore by the State Government towards disbursal of interest-free loan to 15 Common Effluent Treatment Plants here, stating it as a violation of Supreme Court ruling of “polluters -pay”. “Why should public money be allocated for the use of dyeing unit owners, that too without any interest levied, as these were the same people who polluted River Noyyal through indiscriminate discharge of effluents resulting eventually in the closure of the entire dyeing units in Tirupur cluster by Madras High Court,” asked K.C.M. Balasubramaniam, a farmer and a retired professor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Seek clarification P. Sankaranarayan, an environmental activist, in a petition to Chief Secretary Debendranath Sarangi, had sought clarification whether the allocation of payment towards loan disbursal was made in accordance with the laws. “According to ‘polluters-pay' ruling made by the Apex Court, financial costs of preventing or remedying damages caused by pollution should lie with the undertakings that caused pollution and it is not the role of the government to meet costs incurred for rectify the damages,” he pointed out. The farming community, who suffered the most of the dyeing effluent discharge into River Noyyal, asks why the government is in a hurry to sanction loans when the CETPs were said to be now running only on a ‘trial basis' in its attempt to test the technologies to ensure zero liquid discharge (ZLD). In the closure order, the Madras High Court had stated that the CETPs/individual dyeing units could restart its commercial operations only after setting up comprehensive ZLD systems which needed to be ratified by a monitoring committee appointed by the court. “Moreover, it is an irony that the CETPs which ridiculed ZLD as an impossible technique some months back now wanted to take the interest-free loans meant for implementing ZLD gadgets with both hands,” he pointed out.