New Delhi, June 26 (Agency) The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Sunday urged the Centre to extend the ban on single use plastic by one year. The Delhi-based traders’ body also urged the government to constitute a joint committee of senior government officials and representatives of stakeholders with a time bound mandate of suggesting equitable alternatives to single use plastic so that the country is able to stop using single use plastic without any disruption.
The CAIT made the request after deliberations were held on the issue by more than 100 trade leaders from all states of the country at a two day national conference being currently held at Nagpur in Maharashtra. CAIT National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that their is no doubt that pollution of environment is a big threat to human civilisation and corrective steps are needed to protect the environment but before any imposition of ban, it is all the more necessary to keep equivalent alternatives ready to shift the usage. He said that it should not be forgotten that over a longer period, single use plastic has emerged as a much bigger industry giving employment to lakhs of people in the country and having an annual turnover of more than Rs 60,000 crores. Banks and financial institutions have a great stake in single use plastic industry and in a situation of a complete ban without providing a viable alternative there would be massive destruction in a working vertical of retail trade of India, he said.
”However, 98 pc of single use plastic is used by MNCs, Corporate Manufacturers, producers, e-commerce companies, warehousing hubs, industry and other types of production units either in their production line or packaging of finished goods. The traders are under compulsion to sell goods in whatever packing they receive from the manufacturer or source of origin. Unless and until, these companies and manufacturing units are not compelled to stop use of single use plastic either in production lines or in packing of finished goods, there will always be an occasion for usage of single use plastic at the consumer end,” they said.