What has happened to the ban on SUP ? Plastics everywhere
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 28, 2022 -

The Government ought to act on what it had decreed and it is with disappointment that this one line observation is being made.

A point which has already been touched upon earlier but constrained to raise this point again.

It was in line with the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the BJP led Government at Imphal also followed suit and banned single use plastic, including half litre packaged drinking water with effect from July 1 this year.

Nearly 90 days down the line and one is constrained to ask whether the ban on single use plastic and packaged drinking water below the capacity of one litre is still in force or whether some concessions have been made.

This question is not a shot in the dark, for half a litre bottle of packaged drinking water continues to adorn the shelf of many shops in Imphal.

Or better still take a walk up Cheiraoching any day and one is sure to be greeted by empty plastic water bottles all piled up beside the road that leads to the peak of Cheiraoching.

And many of the discarded plastic water bottles are of the half a litre capacity. The very sight of the piled up discarded water bottles should tell two stories clearly.

One, the ban on half a litre of packaged drinking water has turned out to be a damp squib and second plastic continues to ravage the environment having intruded the pristine Cheiraoching, a favourite destination for many walkers.

Plastic carry bags, which are single use plastic continue to be used with impunity and go shopping to any of the major markets in Imphal and one will certainly see potatoes, tomatoes, fruits etc coming packed in plastic carry bags.

An insensitive people coupled with a Government which has so far failed to seriously implement an order issued earlier is writ large on the refusal of the people to stop using single use plastic.

The result is the environment continues to be ravaged with impunity.

Take a look at the market shed that has been recently constructed at Lamphelpat in front of Shanker Talkies and one will surely be greeted by the piled up garbage consisting mainly of plastics.

Something, somewhere is definitely wrong and the results will be there for everyone to see and experience when the sky opens up.

Clogged drains and nullahs, blocked khongbans are stories that one hears everytime the sky opens up and here is writ the story of a people who just do not care and refuse to look beyond one’s nose.

Indifference of the people and a Government which refuses to act on its earlier notification and surely the script for plastic pollution is ready.

This is what is happening at Imphal right now. Other than this, the Government also needs to seriously take a look at the Inter-State Bus Terminus along Dingku Road.

The state of the ISBT is such that inter-State passenger buses are today no longer parked there with the vehicles picking up the passengers at North AOC.

It is the same with inter-district vehicles. Passengers are today picked up and dropped just at the gate of ISBT thereby adding to the traffic chaos on the busy and crowded Dingku Road.

When was the last time that any efforts were made to repair the worn out roads inside the campus of ISBT ? When was the last time that the campus was cleaned ?

The ISBT came under heavy strain during the Nationwide lockdown after Covid landed on India, with all the goods trucks reporting there.

But it is now two years since the Nationwide lockdown and surely something ought to have been done to repair the bus terminus.

This is apart from the fact that the location of the ISBT is totally wrong and Imphal must be the only capital of a State where the ISBT is located right in the middle of the city.

Apart from repairing the roads within the terminus, there is the pressing need for the Government to look for some other venue where the ISBT can come up beyond the heart of Imphal city.