‘Substandard’ cloth, jute bags fail to impress Ambala residents

Nitin Jain

The cloth and jute bags which the district administration had been distributing to promote the ban on single-use plastic have been rejected as “substandard” and of “no use” by a majority of local residents.

The district administration had last week launched a drive to distribute cloth and jute bags to the locals for free.

The Municipal Corporation, which was made the nodal agency to provide non-plastic bags to residents for free on the production of their residential address proof, claimed to have distributed over 1 lakh non-plastic bags to the locals so far.

However, a visit to the local MC office, where the non-plastic bags were being distributed, found a majority of the takers unsatisfied with the product.

“I had come all the way from my home to get these bags, which I find of poor quality and of no use to me,” complained Seema, a housewife.

Arjun, a student who managed to get the bag after producing his residence proof, said he had to waste his precious time standing in the queue for the bag, which he said was “not good enough”.

“I came to know about the free bags from my neighbourhood, following which I came here but the quality of the bag disappointed me,” said Rajesh Krishan.

MC officials on the other hand refused to agree with the public complaints and claimed that the bags were of the quality specified by the department and they were doing it in larger public interest without charging a single penny from residents.

“Since residents were used to carry plastic bags, they were not finding cloth and jute bags suitable at the first instance. But once they will start using these, they will get adapted,” the officials said.

Deputy Commissioner Ashok Kumar Sharma, who had directed to distribute cloth and jute bags, said it was a step ahead to realise the plan to make Ambala a ‘plastic-free’ district.

MC Commissioner Sushil Kumar Malik said the cloth and jute bags have been made available in the MC office and residents can walk in during the office hours and claim the non-plastic bags on the production of ration card or any other valid residence proof.

Taking a cue from the single-use plastic free India campaign, the district administration had decided to reach out to residents through door-to-door campaign for promoting the use of cloth and jute bags and in turn shun plastic bags.

The Deputy Commissioner had asked the district officials to rope in social and voluntary organisations to launch a mass public movement in this regard.

To achieve the aim, a ‘bartan bhandar’ was also recently opened at the District Red Cross Society, so that people could shun the use of plastic utensils at community luncheons and instead take steel utensils from the Red Cross Society for the purpose.

Reviewing the collection, segregation and disposal of single-use plastic, he stressed the need to motivate the general public to reduce the use of plastic. While the use of plastic water bottles had already been discontinued in the district offices, leading business institutions and NGOs were being requested to make jute bags under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and distribute them to the general public.

Besides, women working at self-help groups across the district were being requested to make cloth and jute bags.

The district administration has also decided to challan offenders to reduce the use of plastic in the district and strict action would be taken against habitual offenders, so that the use of plastic was curbed.

The nation-wide ‘swachhata hi seva’ programme on the theme ‘plastic waste shramdaan’ observed from September 11 to October 27 would continue for six weeks and conclude in three phases. The first phase was observed from September 11 to October 1, in which people were made aware about not to use plastic. Awareness programmes will also be conducted in schools and colleges. Apart from this, locations would be identified by the departments concerned for collecting and managing the plastic waste. In the first phase, a campaign would be launched to promote the use of jute bags instead of plastic bags.

In the second phase, which began on October 2, plastic waste was collected at identified places in cities and villages, where it would be managed. In the third phase, reusable plastic waste and single-use plastic would be segregated. The reusable plastic would be transported to various industrial units.