Choking the earth to death ! Effective ban on plastics needed
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 26 2018 -

It is extremely convenient. Yet it is not friendly, dealing a death blow to environment and the eco-system, which ultimately can challenge the very survival of all living beings on planet earth.

A point which is known not only to the environmentalists or the green crusaders, but to every Tom, Dick and Harry.

It is to battle the scourge of plastics that the Government of Maharashtra has enforced a ban on plastics.

Manipur too has woken up to the menace of plastics and the current continuous drive conducted by the Manipur Pollution Control Board should drive home this point.

At the moment, the drive centres around confiscating plastic carry bags with less than 50 micron in thickness.

Come August 1 and violators will be penalised with fines and imprisonment or both.

A step which should have been taken up a long time back, if one may add.

Everyone knows the scourge of plastics and its impact in the immediate vicinity of everyone, but this has not dissuaded the public from using plastic carry bags.

The convenience offered by plastic carry bags is the reason.

No more soggy paper bags and no more trouble in wrapping items or goods bought from the store.

A kilo of fish or chicken or pork can be conveniently carried in a plastic carry bag, and it is this convenience which has led to rampant use of plastic carry bags, impacting on the environment and the eco-system.

But this is mindless and it is disturbing and frightening.

Since people do not have the basic common sense to use plastic carry bags with a sense of responsibility, it is now left to the Government to penalise anyone found using plastic carry bags below 5 micron in thickness from August 1 this year.

A look around should suffice to detail the negative impact on the environment.

It is not uncommon to see the khongbans and nullahs in every leikais and leiraks to be clogged with plastics impeding the free flow of water.

The water from these nullahs then overflow and erode the black topped roads.

Even the natural water ways that flow through the heart of Imphal are increasingly getting polluted with plastics and wastes generated by humans.

A look at Nambul and Imphal River will testify the point that is sought to be made here.

Here it is important for the BJP led Government to the come to the point that merely putting a ban on plastics of certain thickness is not enough.

The ban will have to be enforced strictly.

How far the Government will go about implementing the ban will depend on its sincerity.

Here it becomes important to recall that more than ten years back the then Congress led SPF Government banned plastic carry bags, lesser than a certain thickness, and made a big thing out of the ban enforced in the commercial areas of Imphal.

It was Chief Minister N Biren then when he was with the Congress who led the drive against plastic carry bags at the commercial areas of Imphal.

Like with many initiatives taken up by the Government, the drive then fell flat on its face, with one one really knowing what happened to the decision of the then Government.

Manipur certainly cannot afford a repeat of the fiasco of the past.

Ban plastics and see what alternatives are there to make the ban effective.