Industry flays ban on plastic bags, says being targetted

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 22

The Mayor of Ludhiana has announced to ban plastic carry bags from August 1. This has caused a lot of worry and confusion among the industrialists making such bags. They said instead of putting the entire blame on the industry, the Municipal Corporation should get the sewer lines cleared and find ways to resolve the problem of drain blockage as in many other western countries, neither there is any ban on plastic bags nor their sewerages remained choked.

Moreover, the plastic bag manufacturers said the state government was trying to hit this industry only whereas wrappers of biscuits, chips and other such products were more harmful. But the government did not have guts to stop them because these were multinational companies and taking a strict action against them was not viable.

Pawanpreet Singh, president of Association of Punjab Technical Textile, said banning plastic bags was no solution. The state government would lose its revenue because people would continue to get these bags from other states, like Gujarat, the largest manufacturer of plastic bags.

‘Recycle waste, teach segregation’

Waste disposal is the main issue and the MC has failed to tackle it till date. The MC should pull up its socks, get the plastic bags recycled properly and generate awareness among the masses about segregation of plastic, etc. They cannot shut the entire industry — Pawanpreet Singh, president, Association of Punjab Technical Textile

“They have again started targeting us because they have failed to provide clean sewerages to public. The pipes remain choked but they put the entire blame on the plastic industry. Waste disposal is the main issue and the MC has failed to tackle it till date. In fact, paper bags are more harmful as these are made by cutting trees. The MC should pull up its own socks, get the plastic bags recycled properly and generate awareness among the masses about segregation of plastic etc. They cannot shut the entire industry,” Singh rued.

Another manufacturer, Sunil Shila Jain, said they had invested crores of rupees in setting up these units. “Ban means shutting our units. If they want to crack the whip, they should punish the manufacturers of wrappers of biscuits, chips etc, which are more harmful. But since it is not possible to punish them, they have started targeting plastic manufacturing units, which are limited in number,” Jain said.

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