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| Bio-degradable plastic-free Jammu soon : JMC | | Poly 'Blanket' ban in state full of loopholes | | Siddharth Sadralia
Jammu, Sept 21: While the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) and the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) is conducting drives to implement the decision of the High Court directing the state government to ban polythene, the authorities however, seem to have failed to get rid of the problem.
Though a nexus between the enforcement authorities and corrupt elements in the trade defeating the real purpose of the ban too cannot be ruled out, the administration seems least bothered to make it a blanket one as has been the case in the state like Himachal Pradesh which has turned out to be plastic free, of late.
When queried to the new Jammu Municipal Commissioner Kiran Wattal over his department just carrying out drive against nabbing the culprits using polythene bags and not making a foolproof system to plug the menace all-out, he said that since he is joined the institution recently only but has assured to make Jammu plastic-free zone soon.
"Despite our great effort to clean sweep this menace off from the city, there are certain miscreants who are smuggling in these plastic bags from outside state and running their business. Recently we have seized nearly one tonne of this non-biodegradable material and handed it over to Pollution Control Board for destruction since we are falling short of godowns to stash them in,' said the JMC Commissioner Wattal.
He said that since there is no factory on ground in the state that is manufacturing this plastic bags here and it is through the railway smuggling that some of the unscrupulous elements are bringing in theses bags.
"Since I have joined in recently only, given some time, I assure to make Jammu non-bio-degradable plastic free zone," he said.
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court in 2006 had banned the use of polythene bags in the state and in 2008 the state government had put a blanket ban on the manufacture and use of polythene in the state.
Following the ban on manufacturing of polythene in the state, dealers started importing stock from outside the state.
After the state High Court imposed a ban on the storage, transportation and use of polythene carry bags, the Housing and Urban Development Department had issued an SRO-182 of 2008 under the J&K Non-Biodegradable Material (Management, Handling and Disposal) Act -2007.
The Environmental Committee of the J&K Legislative Assembly had also directed for a strict ban on polythene bags in the state and stressed upon launching a public awareness campaign to educate people about the hazards of using polythene.
"There seems to be no sincere effort from the state administration as well as the executing agencies which has given such leverage to the poly users who are using such mechanism of smuggling the material into the state. The faulty approach of enforcement agencies in implementing the ban on the usage, storage and transportation of polythene, is the real cause of the loopholes," said one of the consumers in the city.
An officer privy to JMC admitted the lackadaisical approach of the MC saying since the government is no mood to make the ban blanket; JMC too is riding the relaxation mood and carrying out sporadic raids and drives then and on to fool the issue. |
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