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Tapan Kumar Biswas, additional secretary and chairman of the polythene monitoring committee formed under the ministry of environment, forest and climate change came up with the performances accomplished so far since November 3. Following a drive against polythene in the kitchen market of Karwan Bazar, he disclosed 48 days' achievement. The chairman of the committee claims the credit of conducting 199 mobile court drives and realising fines amounting to Tk 2,572,300 from 414 shops and business establishments. Also, 50,556 kilograms of polythene bags were seized.
The operation of mobile court and seizure of big hauls of polythene shopping bags can hardly be any achievement. But surely the snapping of utility services to and sealing off four factories that produced such bags is a big achievement. Yet the question remains, are the drives producing the desired results? Not at all. Hardly a kitchen market in Dhaka can boast it is free of the polythene bags. Even the vendors selling fruits, vegetables or other commodities from their rickshaw vans use such bags as before. Where from do they get the supply? Old stocks were supposed to run out by this time.
Well, the step by step enforcement was logical but still it fell short of adequate preparation. Let's see why. A limited ban on use of polythene bags was first enforced from October 1 last and the countrywide ban was imposed from November 1 last. Actually, the original ban on use of polythene shopping bags in Bangladesh was imposed way back in 2001, the first country to have done so. At that time, there was greater success and it fell through because of a lack of subsequent follow-up. Therefore, the legal provision enacted to do so was still valid although it came to disuse. In that sense the latest prohibition ought to have been an invocation of the earlier law.
Whatever it may be, the important point is that doing away with this randomly used and thrown away non-biodegradable substance was long overdue. The month of November was set for monitoring market, not backed up by legal actions against vendors or retailers. This was logical because by this time, they were supposed to have disposed with their stocks. However, during this time the manufacturers and suppliers were targeted for action. From December 1 last, full enforcement of the prohibitive act took effect.
Evidently, the realities of 2001 and 2024 are way different. Not many factories producing polythene bags were there then but today their number is supposed to have multiplied. So, sealing just four of those off is proving to be a half-hearted exercise. The mobile court drives at the kitchen market is useless. It is clear that this cat-and-mouse game the bureaucrats have played all along is more a ploy or an eye wash than a serious move to eliminate the menace of this harmful substance. The need is to focus on the production units. If not a single such bag is produced anywhere, there is no question of its use by anyone.
Instead of sticking to this useless tactic, as proved by years of such drives, please launch purposeful drives against the producers of polythene shopping bags. Make it a point that not a single such factory will be in operation for production of those bags. These are not underground manufacturing plants, so each one of those can be identified for sealing those off.
Although this time the move cannot be likened with putting the cart before the horse, as is done in such cases, still it was not complemented with the supportive initiatives. The alternative to polythene bags are few and far between. Had there been mass production of even remotely comparable alternative shopping bags, the situation would have improved a lot. So, this is a prerequisite that must be addressed on a war-footing in order to complement the drive against poly-bag manufacturers.