the goan I network
PANAJI
As the State celebrated Gandhi Jayanti on October 2, the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) announced with much fanfare that it would strictly impose the ban on plastics in the capital city. And it did.
Commissioner Ajit Roy and Mayor Vithal Chopdekar went about distributing ‘cloth bags’ to citizens and vendors and claimed thousands of such bags were given out for free to substitute the plastic carry-bags the society is so used to.
Turns out these bags distributed by the CCP were not of ‘cloth’ but polypropylene, among 11 materials notified as “non-biodegradable” in ‘The Goa Non-Biodegradable Garbage (Control) Act’ 1996, and therefore banned.
A CCP team led by the commissioner and mayor went to the Panaji Municipal Market to create awareness amongst vendors about the plastic ban, now in force. The team from the CCP also distributed alternative white bags to vendors, which turned out to be polypropylene. However, the one bag per vendor that was distributed appeared to be only a token as most vendors had either bought their own cloth bags, were using paper, or continued to use low-micron plastic bags.
When asked, one vendor told ‘The Goan’, “Even though we bought our own cloth bags and are selling it to customers who ask for them at Rs 10 a piece, the CCP came and handed out these white bags to us. They told us to use bags like these which are cheaper than our cloth bags.” Other vendors were furious and asked, “The CCP thinks we get one customer a day? They only came and gave us a bag each.”
The Goa Non-Biodegradable Garbage (Control) Act’ 1996 defines “non-biodegradable garbage” as waste garbage or material which is not bio-degradable garbage and includes polyethylene, nylon, and other plastic goods such as PVC polypropylene and polystyrene which are not capable of being destroyed by an action of living beings and are more specifically included in the schedule to this Act.
The polypropylene bags distributed by the CCP look like cloth at first glance, but one can make out the difference on feeling them. The bags tear easily, and if not disposed of properly, can be as harmful to the environment as single-use plastic.
Sources told ‘The Goan’ that the CCP obtained the bags from two companies as part as the companies’ corporate social responsibility.
