GUWAHATI, June 3 � The North Eastern Small Scale Industries Association (NESSIA) has vehemently opposed the ban imposed vide order GMC/96/11-12/28 dated May 10, 2012 by the Commissioner of Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) on the sale of plastic cups, plates and similar other products within the municipal area of the city after three weeks of issuance of the order.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, the State president of NESSIA, Sailen Baruah said that the ban imposed by the GMC on plastic product would badly hit production and manufacturing activities of small scale industries (SSIs) in Assam, and called for immediate roll-back of the order in the �interest of the State�s industrial growth.�
�This will seriously hit the production units, and is nothing but a pressure being put on the plastic industries to shift their businesses to other neighbouring States,� he said.
In Assam, a dozen such plastic processing units are operating, producing 430 tons per month with employment of above 1,500 persons as against the 13,000 total number of plastic processing units (all types) in the country. In Maharashtra alone 1,000 units are functioning.
�Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene which are polymers of pure carbon and hydrogen are required as the main raw material for plastic industries. Currently Reliance and Haldia Petro Chemicals Ltd are the main manufacturers and suppliers of raw material to the Assam�s plastic industries which will also be the downstream industry of the upcoming gas cracker project in upper Assam. If the ban imposed by the GMC is not revoked, the prospective entrepreneurs for the upcoming Plastic Park to be set up with raw material from the gas cracker unit at Tinsukia will have to think twice for the viability of marketing of their products,� Baruah said.
Mukul Chandra Barkataky of NESSIA said that the GMC had no power for issuance of such an order, as it was responsible for scientific disposal of solid waste only. The Ministry of Environment and Forest has notified the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011.
It replaces the earlier Recycled Plastics Manufacture and Usage Rules, 1999 (amended in 2003).
