Activists fighting against pollution in the Bolaram and Pathancheru industrial estates of Andhra Pradesh faced an ironic situation. First, they fought pollution. Then they fought against the common effluent treatment facilities, the clean-up devices. Based on an affidavit filed by Patancheru Anti-Pollution Committee, a local ngo, the Supreme Court (SC) in 1997 directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to assess the functioning of CETPs. They said that common facility, run commercially, was collecting effluents from several polluting industries and discharging it untreated into the local stream.

In its 1998 report, CPCB set new standards for effluents