A parliamentary panel has asked the MoEF to serve closure notices to industrial units discharging their effluents into rivers if they do not install treatment plants within a specific time frame. The committee in its report tabled recently in the Rajya Sabha said the ministry should look seriously into such matters and impose heavy penalties and serve closure notices if they continue to pollute. The discharge of effluents in water bodies was leading to an alarming contamination of water threatening animal life and vegetation, it added. The committee felt that apart from providing financial assistance to state governments on common effluent treatment plants (CETP) for modernisation and capacity expansion, the ministry, through its nodal agency-the CPCB-, should make sure that requisite technical assitance should is also given to them. The panel was told that 314 polluting industrial units have been closed since 2006 for not installing effluent treatment devices and 115 were facing legal action. A total of 1,204 grossly polluting industries had been identified in 2006 and out of that only 775 units had installed ETPS. Under a scheme formulated for financial assitance for ETPS, states and the Centre would each give 25 per cent subsidy while the entrepreneur's contribution would come to 20 per cent and the loan from financial institution would be 30 per cent of the cost. The main objective of the CETPS is to reduce the treatment cost to be borne by an individual member unit to a minimum by treating the effluent emanating from a cluster of compatible small-scale industries. It has, however, been found that most of the time the effluent treatment plants do not function properly and state governments do not pay attention to make them functional once they develop problems after installation. Lack of proper maintenance and technological knowhow is the most common reason of the ETPS becoming non-functional after their installation. Which is why the committee felt that technical assistance should also be given to states in addition to the financial aid.