Find alternative before banning plastic bags: TDP
Hyderabad, May 6 (INN): The Telugu Desam Party on Friday demanded that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation must provide the people with an alternative to plastic bags before banning them from the city.
Talking to INN, TDP Floor Leader in the GHMC Singi Reddy Srinivas Reddy said that Mayor Banda Karthika Reddy has called for a ban on the usage of plasticbags in the city, without looking at the difficulties that would be faced by the people of the twin cities.
The TDP leader said that implementation of any ban on plastic bags would have an adverse reaction from the people who have become dependent on its usage. He said that the people living in GHMC limits use around 2.7 lakh plastic bags per day for various purposes like carrying vegetables, fruits and other groceries.
'About 600 manufacturing units, producing the plastic bags have been established around the GHMC limits. Out of this, about 72 units' manufacture high quality plastic bags used for carrying clothes and other goods. If any ban is imposed on the plastic bags, about ten thousand people who are dependent on this industry will become unemployed overnight,' Mr Srinivas Reddy said.
Mr Srinivas reddy suggested that these employees of plastic bag manufacturing units must first be trained to take up alternative vocations so that the ban will not leave them unemployed.
'If the ban on plastic bags is enforced immediately, the void can only be filled with around three lakh paper bags per day. This will have a negative impact on the environment in the longer run,' Mr Srinivas Reddy said. He added that any ban should be enforced in phases, adding, 'This alone will work.'
News Posted: 6 May, 2011
|
