Nearly 250 plastic manufacturing units to restart operations in dist

After the state government gave a breather to plastic manufacturing units in the state many factories, that were lying shut, are expected to start operations soon. The government recently announced that plastic manufacturing units could start manufacturing, selling and stocking plastic carry bags of 120 microns again. With the announcement, nearly 250 units, which were either shut or were operating illegally, will start functioning again. While the decision was taken by the AAP-led state government in the first week of April itself, manufacturers only received a copy of the notification recently.

Mankar Garg, president of the Plastic Manufacturers and Traders Association, (PMTA) here said this decision was much-awaited by the plastic manufacturing industry, which was struggling to get it implemented since 2016.

“The government has left out a few districts, including Mohali, Ropar, Derabassi and Zirakpur, in the decision. So manufacturing plastic in these districts will still not be allowed, but in remaining districts 120 micron carry bags can be manufactured, stocked and used. We had to make a lot of efforts to get the government to relase this notification. Not even a single day passed when plastic carry bags were not used in the state during the nine years since the ban. It was just that these were coming from other states and Punjab’s industry was suffering badly due to it,” said Garg.

At the same time, the manufacturers said that the state government now needed to crack the whip against those who were getting low quality plastic bags into Punjab from other states illegally.

Another manufacturer, Shila Jain, who had stopped manufacturing operations for a long time, said the problem now was that Gujarat had started sending low quality product into the state which would put a dent to their business.

“The state government should put a ban on the low quality paper bags arriving here from other states. We are asked to manufacture thick carry bags, while many consumers here are still getting low quality bags from Gujarat. Ultimately, the customers will have to bear the heavy price due to which shopkeepers have also started stocking low quality bags in godowns in the periphery areas of the city,” said Jain, adding that the plastic manufacturing industry had already suffered huge losses in the past decade. The state government must not allow the smuggling of low quality bags from other states and save Punjab, she said.

Ludhiana