The Hindu Business Line : A ban quietly bagged?

IT IS safe to assume that July 26 does not come twice a year. And it is this assumption that seems to be rationale for the Maharashtra Government's take-it-easy policy as far as a host of reconstruction activities in Mumbai are concerned. The decision to go slow on the rebuilding is one instance. And the inertia on taking a firm decision in connection with the plastic bag ban is another.

It is felt that the rain that made its impact in no unmistakable terms in 2005 will rear its destructive head only in 2006. In this scenario, if you were part of the bureaucratic wheel that turns the behemoth called administration, there is no reason to lose sleep over something that may or may not happen some eight months hence.

Having picked plastic bags as Mumbai's enemy No 1 some three months back, the administration has quietly given a burial to the issue as plastic, it transpires, is more than what the powers that be can afford to chew. An expert committee set up by the State government to weigh the pros and cons of making Mumbai, and by extension entire Maharashtra, a plastic free zone, has concluded that the cons far outweigh the pros. The committee has put the blame squarely on the system that does not allow the State government to come out with such bans as they fall under the purview of the Environment Protection Act.

Having taken a position that, unlike in the past, there was no question of settling for a graded ban on plastic bags (there already exists a ban on bags of less than 20 micron thickness), the State government is once again faced with the prospect of doing precisely that. The experts, it is understood, have proposed a horses-for-courses policy whereby those bags that go for packing oil will have a certain thickness, those for milk another grade and the general grocery type of bag of a lesser level of thickness. Whether all this will translate into action is a moot question with many shop-owners in the city willing to take a bet that it will remain mere talk.

Clearly, the plastic manufacturers association is cock-a-hoop as it had maintained all along the non-feasibility of imposing such a ban. The body had criticised the government for making plastic bag the whipping boy in a bid to underplay the inept handling of the floods and the total breakdown of the machinery when faced with a disaster that came mainly on account of clogged gutters and storm-water drains.

The plastic manufacturers lobby had threatened to take legal recourse and gone on to highlight how such a ban would impact exports of this commodity from all over the country. As per Basel Convention norms, any such ban would have meant curtains for the Indian plastic bag exports of around Rs 500 crore a year and this aspect is understood to have been a major lever for the association in making the State government `see reason'.

From the common man's perspective, worrying thoughts of going back to the days of milk in glass bottles have been laid to rest. As has been the case with preoccupation on how to buy edible in one-litre containers had the ban been enforced.

It is now clear that it will have to be a markedly watered-down policy initiative that will take on the avowed villain of the Mumbai floods; similarly other efforts in areas of rebuilding the city too seems to be going nowhere — the present condition of public roads being a valid example. Still lying in cold storage is the major public-private joint effort whereby India's leading business houses, headquartered in Mumbai, were to adopt various parts of the city and rebuild the infrastructure. Having successfully rebuilt the quake ravaged towns of Gujarat only a few years ago, this was not seen as a task beyond them.

The impassioned plea by the Maharashtra Chief Minister at that time was that "it was time to give back to the city". Implied was that the business community had been the beneficiaries all along of the city's bounty; the corporates promptly agreed. The only reservation made by almost all the captains of industry that day was they be allowed to take up specific projects that left a mark rather ask them to contribute money. They also reiterated that the Government should not take too long in deciding on the course of action. Four months have gone by without any trace of action from the government.

Political expediency may demand a bit of sabre-rattling by various players when jingoistic issues. No one expects it to be any different as Maharashtra has a stake in the issue. At the same time the people who live in India's premier city also expect that the government to address some of its long-pending infrastructure issues that will give it more breathing space. Sure, the city may have another eight months before it faces the threat of another deluge.

Having used up plastic bags, it will be up to the authorities to identify a new excuse the next time around.

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