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Myth of Polythene Free State

By Tilak Mehra. Dated: 9/25/2012 11:56:52 PM

The people, apart from both the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) of the State have been found out to be mainly responsible for the Polythene bags’ menace in both the regions. The former is equally guilty for not taking any strict action against the suppliers, distributors, shopkeepers including the vendors, who openly violate the State laws and regulations in the backdrop of J&K having already banned them alongwith its related items.
However, both the Corporations have already spent enormous amounts for lifting the waste material through their vehicles which consists of a maximum number of Polythenes. This shows exactly how much the former have been serious about their drive to control the Polythene menace in the State and helpless at the same time to make it free from the same. However, their move is akin to “Once in a Blue Moon” while conducting strict action against the violators who always ride rough-shod over the rules and regulations. Whereas, the Corporations’ staff and the housewives throw the garbage in the sewerage pipes and in the open lanes, blocking them for months together instead of dumping it in the nearest dustbins installed by the former.
Besides, the street vendors, vegetable and fruit-sellers after the selling process is over, throw rest of the waste material on the roads and nearby lanes and drains with impunity, one of the reasons why the lanes and drains are blocked instead of dumping it at one place. Similarly, the petty shopkeepers, sweets shops, small ‘Dhaba’s’ and Restaurants utilize the Polythene bags with aplomb and never help the State to steer it towards attaining a ‘Polythene-free’ status.
One always notices the Polythene bags lying in every nook and corner of the State, in violation of the norms imposed way back in 2009 and the very process of throwing them on the roads in broad daylight without any threat being posed by the authorities concerned. In this context, both Corporations have been claiming to conduct anti-polythene drives to implement the decision as per the Court directions, but the authorities at large have failed to get rid of the problem.
Earlier, various organizations and the State NGO’s launched massive cleanliness drives to make J&K free of the menace in collaboration with both the Corporations and other concerned authorities, but failed to address the problem in totality. It is however, a fact that the people of the State themselves have to take serious initiatives to help clean the environment vis a vis a burgeoning threat owing to the growing pollution.
The government has to take some serious initiatives through more and more awareness campaigns and programmes to educate the people, particularly the upcoming generation about the latter, but the State government till date has failed to flag them off so that the people could fully boycott the use of polythene bags in the State.
Visually disturbing though, the impact of the problem is enormous in hitherto unknown dimensions. The ubiquitous polythene or PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) is a deadly leftover of the petroleum products and takes eons to disintegrate completely. For years, these continue to poison the soil on which they are thrown and are known to pollute the pristine waters of the lakes, rivulets and the streams. This is an absolute cause of concern and should be made the focal point while educating the masses on a war footing, that is.
(The author is a staffer of Kashmir Times)