Indore, voted as the cleanest city in India, does not follow the strict order by Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava to ban plastic disposable cups for distributing tea. The mayor had directed that all tea vendors should not use plastic disposables and threatened to open a crackdown in case orders were not complied with within the next three days. Still, the authorities appear to be ignoring these directives.
More worrying is the fact that this is happening even when the chief minister, Dr. Mohan Yadav, who is the district-in-charge, is present the officials are still reluctant to implement what the mayor has ordered. This raises serious concerns as to whether or not there is an extent of complicity between the officials and manufacturers of plastic disposal.
As much as many people may disagree with the decision of the mayor to ban plastic disposables, he has some reasons for that. It has been argued that even paper-based disposables have a thin plastic layer and if hot tea is poured in it, it dissolves. That this dissolved plastic is far from being harmless means that it can cause serious health complications, including cancer. Given that the use of plastic poses serious health risks, the mayor had to make a stand and come up with strict guidelines.
However, this effort is hampered by the fact that the authorities do not enforce this regulation. Being one of the cleanest cities in India, Indore cannot remain unresponsive to the impact of excessive use of plastics on the health of the citizens; on the same note, a permissible ban is supposed to protect the health of the community. The question remains: Are the officials perhaps ignorant, or are they in someway involved with the factories dealing with the disposal of plastics? The public has to wait for the answers it badly needs because the health and welfare of a nation’s people are at stake.
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