By Lamphrang Nongspung
Despite the complete ban on plastic by the Government, it is seen that many of the shop owners in the city are openly violating this ban by issuing plastic bags to the customers.
The Government had imposed a complete ban on plastics on October last year.
The move to ban plastic carry bags come in line with the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011.
With the implementation of the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011, under which it is ‘mandatory’ for customers to pay for each plastic bag they obtain from the shopkeepers, the State Government had earlier decided to strictly follow the prescribed norm of banning the use of plastic materials which have thickness not below the permissible 40 microns.
Shockingly after one year since the ban has been imposed, the dream of the Government to make Shillong a plastic free city is still far from becoming a reality with no one bothering to comply with it.
The vigilance team of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) is solely responsible for failing to curb this menace.
The SMB vigilance team is supposed to carry out surprise checking to see that no shops in the city issue plastic bags to the customers.
But sadly the vigilance team are found wanting in their job. The fact is that the vigilance team has not conducted any surprise checking of the shops for many months.
The lackadaisical attitude of the SMB employees has allowed the shopkeepers to violate the ban imposed by the Government. Earlier, Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said that they would strictly implement this ban on plastic bag, stating that any lawbreaker will be dealt with stringently.
While maintaining that this kind of noble initiative requires the active support of the citizens of the State, Urban Affairs also admitted that it is because of the failure on the part of the vigilance teams which was drawn from both MUDA and Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) to conduct a regular checking which has allowed the shop owners to defy the ban imposed by the Government.
Meanwhile, the attempt of the State Government to replace plastic bags with eco-friendly hand woven bags called “Pla Iew” and “Sla” or leaves has failed to kick off on a larger scale due to the want of manufacturers and suppliers.
The Government had earlier planned to introduce such environment friendly bags/leaves which came in the heels of rampant river and stream water pollution in the city and the effort of the State government to turn the city into a cent percent ‘no plastic zone.’
Many food items were supposed to be sold in these leaves which are environmentally acceptable. Though the use of such environmental friendly bags was intended rightly, the Urban Affairs Minister in the recent past was determined to implement the plastic laws of the union government in letter and spirit in the state.