Allahabad HC seeks Govt plan on ‘Chinese manjha’

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday took a stern view of the sale, purchase and use of Chinese manjha — nylon and lead-coated kite strings — and sought to know from the Uttar Pradesh Government what concrete plan it had devised to stop its use. The State Government informed the court that it was in the process of framing a law to prohibit such manjha and that a six-member committee had already been constituted for the purpose.

Taking note of the submission, a bench of Justices Rajan Roy and Manjive Shukla directed the secretaries, or officers above the rank of secretary, of the Home and Environment departments to remain present through video conferencing on the next date of hearing on July 13. The order was passed while hearing a PIL filed by local advocate ML Yadav.

During the hearing, Central Government counsel Rajkumar Singh informed the court that the use of lead-coated and nylon manjha had already been banned by the National Green Tribunal.

The bench observed that merely imposing a ban was not sufficient and said it was also the responsibility of the state Government to ensure effective compliance and investigate places where such manjha was being manufactured and sold.

Meanwhile, the city’s kite association filed an intervention application alleging that police and other authorities were harassing its members in the name of action against Chinese manjha. On this, the court observed that members of the association should also cooperate in efforts to curb the use of banned kite strings and directed the Government to ensure that no one was unnecessarily harassed.