Exempt water bottles, urges PDWMAIM
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 27 2022: The Packaged Drinking Water Manufacturers and Allied Industries Manipur (PDWMAIM) has appealed to the Government to relax the Manipur Plastic Policy 2022 for water bottles of one litre and 500 ml capacities.

Speaking to media persons at Manipur Press Club here today, PDWMAIM president M Geetchandra Sharma claimed that the association wholeheartedly supports the Manipur Plastic Policy 2022 .

The policy, however, has severely handicapped all the people working in packaged drinking water industries, he said.

He said that they recently submitted a memorandum to the State Government seeking review of the same policy.

PDWMAIM executive member Thangjam Joykumar said that locally produced packaged drinking water was introduced in the State in 2000 and now local production is sufficient to meet the State's demand for packaged drinking water.

Earlier, packaged drinking water was imported from Assam and Nagaland.

There are around 36 units in the State which are engaged in producing packaged drinking water, Joykumar said.

Around 3000 people are working under these 36 units which have been paying GST and income tax regularly, he said.

The Central Government and the State Government recently brought a new policy on plastics.

The association supports this policy but the State's market for packaged drinking water is dominated by 500 ml bottles up to almost 80 per cent while one litre bottles contribute the remaining 20 per cent, he said.

He then appealed to the State Government to review the policy and relax the ban on 500 ml bottles.

In line with the Manipur Plastic Policy, the association has opened 80 plastic bottle banks and it is working to raise the number of such banks to 200, Joykumar continued.

The association would take the responsibility of recycling used plastics collected through these banks, he said.

He went on to claim that so far 8 MT of empty plastic bottles have been collected.

But the association cannot do anything about polythene bags and other plastic items, he added.

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