India has lost its fight against plastic in the first round itself. The lackadaisical approach by state government in taking much required steps has left our country clueless about how to fight the biggest environmental challenges of our time.?
None of the 25 states that were supposed to submit their action plan on the systematic disposal of plastic waste by April 30 have done so. The report had to be?submitted to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The states will now have to pay a penalty of Rs 1 crore to the board.??
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The National Green Tribunal had set April 30 as deadline for the states to submit the? plan, but most of the states have failed to meet the deadline and now as per the NGT order, the states have to pay the compensation.
According to the CPCB report 2015 states that Delhi (689.52), Chennai (429.39), Mumbai (408.27), Bangalore (313.87) and Hyderabad (199.33) are among the major metropolitan piling up the heaps of plastic waste.???
Speaking to PTI, SK Nigam, former Additional Director of CPCB, said, Ą°They (States) did not comply with our orders, so we moved the NGT. Now they are violating NGT orders, so they have to pay the price for it. The punishment not just includes compensation but imprisonment too, in some cases.Ąą
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The condition of? plastic waste management is very poor as itĄ¯s not a priority for the states, Nigam said.?
Ą°The state of affairs is poor. Waste management is the last in the list of priorities of municipal corporations. The CPCB will now apprise the NGT about non-compliance and make the states pay heavy amount for the default.Ąą
The reason why most states failed to comply with the deadline to submit the plan is the lack of knowledge among the state authorities and the communication? gap between the state and central government officials, believes Ashish Jain, chairman of an NGO, Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA).
?Ą°Lack of knowledge and updates among the State pollution control boards is the main reason for non-compliance of plastic waste management rules. There is a communication gap between the ministry of environment and state level officials responsible for waste management compliance.
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Ą°The Ministry of Environment needs to conduct awareness programmes to educate state-level officials to carry out necessary measures to segregate plastic and dispose it,Ąą he said.?
Earlier this year,? the NGT had issued directives to all states and Union Territories except for Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Sikkim and Puducherry to submit an action plan for compliance of plastic waste management rules and submitting the same to CPCB by April 30.