PATNA: Bihar Industries Association (BIA) on Thursday appealed to the state government to postpone the ban on single-use plastic from July 1, till the time an easily available and eco-friendly alternatives are made available.
"The state government is going to ban manufacturing, trade and storage of single-use plastic from July 1. We support this initiative by the government as disposal of plastic has become a global issue and a challenge. However, we also see that it will badly affect the local industries associated with plastic, whereas multi-national companies selling chips and snacks in single use plastic packets are not being asked to stop such practices. Thus, the local plastic manufacturers are looking at it as step-motherly treatment," said Arun Agarwal, president of BIA.
BIA general secretary Ashish Rohtagi claimed that the government did not make sufficient preparations for making alternatives to single use plastic available in the market.
"Imposing a ban on single use plastic without any substantial alternatives will adversely impact not only the market, but also the common people," he said.
He added: "When technologically advanced countries like USA and Canada, have taken a buffer till 2032, in order to take this step, how do we expect India to implement it in such haste. It will not only be a failure but also take a toll on the employment figures, leaving lakhs of people unemployed. This industry has an investment of Rs 3 lakh crore and around 89,000 small-scale and large-scale industries are running, where a large part of the workers are uneducated women who earn up to Rs 700 on a daily basis."
