PLASTIC BAG FLOOD LEADS TO ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

ARE we really serious about our environment? Every day we are getting news that our environment is going polluted deeply. But we are only showing sympathy by reading all these news and give a look of frustration by thinking nothing can be done. We always accuse others for all these things but never think about ourselves. While we are busy in celebrating our life in different social functions and enjoying a lot, at the same time we are forgetting the consequence of harmful impact on the environment. The use of plastic bags has increased as it is festival time and more people are going shopping. Recently there was a news in Times of India about the bad impact on environment during Diwali while many plastic bags are used by people during shopping. In these occasions generally people do their shopping and everything they carry in the plastic bags provided by the shopkeeper. After offloading we generally throw all those bags outside this creates a great problem for environment as those are not biodegradeable. At the same time the shopkeepers are also not paying any attention to the environment.

Since the plastic bags come cheap, shopkeepers are blatantly flouting the rules to maximise profits. While traders say that it is not possible to switch to eco-friendly bags “so soon” as the government has not made cheap alternatives available, the environment department admits that it needs to change its strategy to enforce the ban. Although govt. has banned its uses but it is not really practiced. Violation of the ban invites five years imprisonment or Rs 1 lakh in fine, but there has been not much progress in conviction. As per the Environment Protection Act, 1986 — under which defaulters stand to be prosecuted — the complaint against a violator has to be made by the government or by a private person who has given a 60-day notice to the government. While insiders said there was no way the judicial process could be bypassed, critics said lack of conviction would prove to be the biggest hurdle for enforcing the ban. Traders said there was nothing they could do unless the government made cheap alternatives available. It is also true that small shopkeepers are not able to provide eco-friendly bags suddenly. But after all it is responsibility of all people to take care of the environment so that everybody can live happily.