The Meghalaya High Court keeps giving directions to the State Government on various issues related to the environment. One of them is to ban plastic bags that are below 120 micron thickness. The High Court needs to send its own officials to do a reality check of its repeated exhortations which remain mere paper tigers. Across Iewduh and all other markets in Shillong and even in rural areas the black plastic bags which scientists say are carcinogenic because of the black colour used, are still widely sold and given out to customers without any fear of violating the law. Way back in 2019 Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma had publicly announced at a function in the State Central Library premises that single use plastics would be banned but six years down the line those plastics are still widely used and continue to clog drains and land up at rivers.
Mere legislation without the spine to implement those laws in letter and spirit have the reverse effect of turning citizens into law breakers since there is no punishment for breaking such laws. The question is why is the Government beholden to the plastic production lobby. Who in the Government is benefitting by promoting this lobby? Arguments that the Government should provide alternatives before banning single use plastics are banal and reek of a mindset that resists change – even change that benefits the environment. Once a law is passed, it should be strictly implemented. People will learn to carry their own bags as they used to do before the advent of the ecologically damaging single use plastic.
The recent reports about the Green Deposit Scheme implemented in tourist destinations is a short term measure because at the end of the day the plastics deposited at the exit points will need to be disposed of somewhere in the village where the tourist spot is located. Ultimately the plastic waste will be burnt and produce pollution for the villagers who have had nothing to do with polluting the environment at all. This is because the villages don’t have recycling units for non-biodegradable waste such as plastics. In fact villages have no waste disposal system in place. The Khasi Hills District Council has come up with a Waste Management and Sanitation legislation but the rules are yet to be crafted. The problem again is that the Council has no resource to create waste management systems so simply having an Act is pointless. Ultimately it is the State Government that must put in place such a system. But again, the State Government does not own land to create landfills or waste processing units. So unless the Dorbar Shnong or the Syiemship decides to create a landfill and a proper waste disposal and processing unit in every village, garbage will become one of the biggest challenges for the present and future governments in Meghalaya. Time has come for MLAs to be elected on the agenda of waste and sanitation management, pollution control and waste processing and the spine to ban single use plastic Failing this Meghalaya will sooner than later be a state where waste management has failed so badly that tourists will not want to visit here to see garbage everywhere and mountains of garbage piled up for want of landfills and waste processing units.
