Ban on single use plastic : Involve the local bodies
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 08, 2022 -

What are the steps that the Government has taken to make the ban on single use plastic effective ?

Is it going to be a step by step process, meaning living up to the understanding of phasing out single use plastic or is it going to be an all out ban ?

The Government needs to be very clear on this. What steps have been taken up or mulled over to take the people along with the call to ban or discard single use plastic ?

Not an easy task this will be, for people as everyone knows can be bull headed, refusing to listen to reasoning and perhaps this mentality can be seen in all its ugliness whenever one takes a look at the traffic chaos on the roads of Imphal or look at any drain or khongban running through any leirak or leikai.

But it stands that something should be done to tackle the increasing plastic pollution and the call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to phase out single use plastic is perhaps the best opportunity for Manipur to implement this order effectively.

This is not the first time that the State Government has put a ban on single use plastic or plastic under 75 microns and if at all there is any lesson to be learnt, then it can draw lessons or points from the past.

Perhaps Chief Minister N Biren is well placed to understand the task at hand and take a leaf or two out of his earlier avatar as the Minister of State for Forest and Environment in the then Ibobi Singh led Government in 2002.

Veterans in the newspapers will certainly remember how the present Chief Minister in his earlier avatar as the MoS for Forest and Environment cracked down on shops selling plastic carry bags and how that initiative petered off.

Fast forward to 2022 and N Biren Singh is today the Chief Minister of Manipur and surely he can draw some lessons from his earlier stint as the Minister of Forest and Environment and what to do and what not to do to make the ban on single use plastic effective.

In between there have been other attempts too to crack down on rampant use of plastics under 75 microns, but as things stand today, it is obvious that all these moves failed.

This is where lesson number 1 may lie. Make the ban effective, but approach the issue differently may just be what the doctor would prescribe and this is where it would be interesting to see and hear what the Govt has in mind, other than imposing stiff penalties on those found violating the ban order.

Has the Government sounded the local bodies such as the different municipal councils, particularly the Imphal Municipal Corporation on the pressing need to make the ban on one time use plastic effective ?

Has it taken the different ADCs into confidence ? How about the Zilla Parishads and other rural bodies ?

These questions are important, especially in the backdrop of the Imphal Municipal Corporation maintaining that so far it has not received any inputs from the Government on the ban.

Other than this it would definitely help if the Government can get in touch with the Bazar Board and other voluntary organisations and enlist their assistance in making the ban effective and meaningful.

How about reaching out to the local clubs in each Assembly Constituency via the respective MLAs ?

Just some suggestions that come to mind for it stands that the time for an effective ban on single use plastic is at hand and this is the right time.

Act now, make it meaningful and yes reach out to all the people who matter, for what is at stake here is Mother Nature and the future of the land and the people.

Think global too, for what happens here can go a long way in impacting on what happens all over the world and the best way to start that is by giving the go by to single use plastic.

Make each household plastic free and see how the drains and khongbans run naturally and smoothly.

This will have an impact on Loktak Lake and the different rivers that run into the said lake.