Plastic shopping bags below 40 microns have been banned in the State Capital but due to lack of effective enforcement mechanisms it has failed to take forward the well-intended law. Despite the blatant use of plastic bags, the penalty hasn’t been imposed on a single offender.
Considering the rampant use of plastic bags in the city, Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has decided to form a committee of four members in every ward for keeping an eye on the offenders and prosecuting the culprits. Ironically, the idea to form the committees remains on paper with no raid so far.
When officials of RMC were enquired about the reason behind the delay they were found shifting the ball on ward members’ court. RMC Deputy Mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya succinctly replied, “The ward members’ have been asked to form a committee and submit the details to RMC as soon as possible. I did not know the reason behind the delay.”
Meanwhile, according to ward members search for suitable candidates for the committee is the biggest hurdle and also the main reason for the delay. Councilor of Ward Number-7 Sujata Kashyap said, “We want to form a strong team for proper implementation of the ban. The time is being taken for recruitment of suitable candidate for the duty. It is expected that soon the ban will be carried out effectively in the State Capital.”
However, another reason behind this is observed to be shuffle of heads in RMC. The appointment of new CEO has put brakes on the ongoing projects. On the condition of anonymity another Ward Councilor said, “Our new CEO Manoj Kumar is unaware about majority of the ongoing projects and without his consent it is difficult to carry out the plans. So majority of plans are put on hold.”
Besides it has been observed there is no change on the ground of sale of banned plastic bags. The practice of bringing vegetables, rice, groceries and other household products in plastic bags continues to thrive.
Owner of Prasad Plastic Industries Hari Prasad said, “We manufacture plastic bags as per the demand of our customers. Government talk about ban but had not shown any concrete action in the direction of curbing the use of plastic bags. The cost of production of below 40 micron plastic bags is less as compared to that of permissible measurement bags as a result of which its sell is on rising trend.”
Meanwhile, for the vegetables vendors in this economic downturn the banned plastic bags prevent from burning bigger hole in their pockets. A vegetable vendor at Nagababa Khatal Raju Kumar said, “The price of every commodity is on rising trend if we sell vegetables in permissible plastic bags then we have to suffer huge loss. Moreover, the customers demand for plastic bags instead of paper bags for carrying the vegetable and for earning our daily bread we have to place the order as per our customers demand.”