Malkangiri: The ban on plastic is no longer effective in the district. For example, around five lakh water pouches were seen dumped on Malyabanta Mohastav grounds.
Reports said around 10,000 people had participated in the holy water pot rally held on the first day of the district-level cultural festival. During the rally, around 20,000 water pouches were distributed to the participants by the organisers.
Similarly, a Palishree Mela was also held during the cultural festival from January 11 to 13. Thousands of people visited the Palishree mela. The culture department had distributed around five lakh drinking water bottles and pouches to the visitors.
On the other hand, the Malkangiri municipality had collected plastic pouches and bottles and had dumped them four km from the town. The municipality had also set afire the plastic pouches and bottles, but the plastic products are lying half-burnt at the dumping yard.
The government had imposed a ban on the sale, storage and manufacture of plastic and polythene bags in the state including the six cities of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Puri in October 2018. The government had also threatened to fine persons selling and using polythene bags.
Later, schools, colleges, youth associations and other outfits had conducted awareness rallies and meetings at the municipality, block and gram panchayat levels.
Local residents and traders were also told about this and they had stopped using plastic and polythene bags. As a result fishmongers were selling fishes in leaves while greengrocers refused to sell vegetables if one didn’t have a cotton bag. But the scene has now changed a few months after the ban on plastic and polythene bags.
Condemning the plastic menace, environmentalists have asked the public and traders to boycott plastic goods.
PNN