Slamming the municipal corporation for failing to enforce the ban on plastic carry bags, which was imposed across the state five years ago, a Jalandhar-based NGO staged a protest outside the MC’s Zone D office on Monday.
The NGO, Action Group Against Plastic Pollution (AGAPP), will be holding demonstrations in the city every week on Monday. Hoping to launch a mass movement against plastic use, founder member Navneet Bhullar said, “A weekly protest is already being staged in Jalandhar since November 9. We will soon be moving to other cities as well. We urge the public to support our movement as it is the first step towards saving the environment.”
Bhullar, who is a US-based doctor, said, “Plastic is not just hurting the environment, but also affecting residents’ health. We have submitted several memorandums to the local bodies departments, and local authorities in Ludhiana and Jalandhar, but to no avail. In October, we also wrote to the chief minister’s office, but have received no response.”
The protesters, who raised slogans such as ‘kisan morcha jitt gaye, asi vee jittangey’ and ‘polythene hatao, dharti, jeevan bachao’, succeeded in getting an audience with the MC commissioner, Pardeep Sabharwal, who reached the office during the protest. “Teams have been formed to check use and sale of plastic bags.”
{{/usCountry}}The protesters, who raised slogans such as ‘kisan morcha jitt gaye, asi vee jittangey’ and ‘polythene hatao, dharti, jeevan bachao’, succeeded in getting an audience with the MC commissioner, Pardeep Sabharwal, who reached the office during the protest. “Teams have been formed to check use and sale of plastic bags.”
{{/usCountry}}The MC has been struggling to impose the ban, which was imposed in April 2016, due to political interference, especially ahead of the elections, and the drives organised by MC in the past have been a damp squib.