Bureaucrats look away as vendors flout plastics ban within Secretariat premises

 To prevent environmental pollution, state government announced the ban on plastics on World Environment Day last year. According to the announcement, plastic bags of all sizes was banned from January 1, this year.

Initially, the ban was taken seriously by people from all sections of the society and sustainable options were explored but as days passed, people resumed using plastic bags.

Violation of the ban can also be witnessed within the Secretariat campus, right under the noses of top bureaucrats. Vendors selling fruit, vegetable, flowers, stationery and plastic materials continue to use plastic bags while handing the wares to their customers.

There are around 15 such small stalls located in a cluster and traders univocally said that for them, there is no alternative for plastic bags and if it is banned, they would lose their livelihood.

Also, even though using banned plastics items near the government office does not instil fear in the vendors, they are scared of being identified as someone who does. A woman selling flowers near the campus, said on the condition of anonymity, “Initially, we too stopped using plastic bags and asked the customers to get bags on their own, but it did not go well with new customers even though the old customers started getting their own bags. We were losing our customers and so we were forced to return to using plastic bags.”

A Secretariat staff from the Finance Department, who is a regular customer of the surrounding stalls, said that though they know that rules are being flouted they do not care much as it is a major factor concerning the livelihood of the poor traders.

When the secretary of Public Department, P Senthil Kumar, who is in-charge of Secretariat campus, was asked about the violation he refused to comment on the issue.