NGO holds rally against use of plastic

Ludhiana, January 19

Action Group Against Plastic Pollution (AGAPP), an NGO, today organised a protest rally outside the office of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) in Focal Point here to highlight failure of the enforcement body to curb the increasing use of plastic.

Carrying banners and raising slogans against plastic pollution, activists of the NGO claimed that officials of the PPCB as well as the Municipal Corporation had hardly made any efforts in this direction due to their vested interests.

Later, at the invitation of PPCB Chief Engineer Gulshan Rai, the activists met PPCB officials but the deliberations remained inconclusive. In the hour-long meeting, the activists said their earlier meetings with the PPCB officials in Jalandhar and headquarters at Patiala had borne no fruit.

“Despite ban, hundreds of plastic and polythene units continue to manufacture plastic and polythene bags while shopkeepers and business establishments are also dispensing these bags freely without any fear of law or penal action by the MC,” said Dr Navneet Bhullar, an AGAPP activist.

Maintaining that enforcement of ban on single-use plastic was not among priorities of the PPCB and the MC, the protesters said the single-use plastic was being used with impunity, manufacture of these banned items continued unabated while the regulatory bodies, the PPCB and MC, were closing their eyes and refuse to believe in the harsh ground reality.

Dr Bhullar said the assurance by the PPCB officials to had meetings with MC officials on a regular basis and keeping other stakeholders (plastic bag manufacturers and sellers) in the loop was a big breakthrough in the ongoing efforts of the AGAPP, including a series of weekly protests.

“If the NGO is not satisfied with the outcome, our protests will be intensified and expanded to cover the entire state in coming days,” he said. — OC

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