Heated arguments broke out between the traders and the police personnel near Darshani Gate in Paltan Bazaar area in Dehradun on Saturday when the latter entered the market to slap penalties on the shopkeepers found keeping the plastic bags and thermocol products in their shops in defiance of the High Court- ordered ban.
The traders said that though they support the court-imposed order and are ready to fall in line the hefty penalty being taken from the small traders by the police amounts to unleashing tyranny on them. One of them K S Chadda who owns a shop which sells bags in Paltan Bazaar said that they must be given some time to arrange alternatives to the long-continuing practice of wrapping items in bags made of the banned items. “We support the High Court regarding the ban it has imposed on the use of the non-biodegradable items in the interest of the environment. But it is wrong for police to make us shell out hefty penalties in the name of the court’s order. We must be given some time to cope with the situation that has arisen out of the ban. The customers are yet to change their habit of taking items we sell in bags made of the banned materials.
We can hardly choose to lose customers as they would go to other shops where the items sold are being wrapped in plastic carry bags. The administration must understand our predicament and give us some more time to fully abide by the court order,” he said.
Kailash Goel, owner of a shop which sells plastic-made utensils, echoed the same, saying that it is unjust to pressure them while the customers are choosing to cling to their old habits. “We cannot drive the customers out by citing the court order. Our margin of profit remaining paltry, it would further dent into our business interest,” he said.
He further said that the customers who insist on being supplied purchased items in such bags should be penalized instead. “A strict enforcement of the rule among them would be more productive as they would thus be made to desist from demanding bags made of the banned materials.
Moreover, to eliminate the menace, the manufactures of such banned items should be slapped with huge penalties and such units must be shut down. Instead of doing such things, the law enforcers are focusing themselves on small traders like us. This is unfortunate,” he said.