Monday, January 24, 2005

Banning of plastic bags is not possible says Indian Environment Minister

I believe our Minister of State for Environment and Forest Namo Naryan Meena said in parliament that ''it is not possible to ban their use''. Worse, I’m told he actually said that plastic bags were ''not harmful to life”. Finding that the Minister was not equipped with details on the matter, the Speaker skipped over to the next question, avoiding an embarrassment to the government on the issue. From taxation to voluntary movements, enlightened governments across the world are encouraging citizens to switch to the reusable bags we export from India. But it looks like our environment ministry has no clue of what a huge amount of harm plastic waste is doing to India’s environment, to it’s people’s health and to it’s animal and marine life. Sad. I expected better from this government.

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