The empowerment committee meeting will be held on June 27, said Neemit Punamiya, General Secretary, Plastic Bag Manufacturers Association of India.

He said almost 2500 factories have closed down and almost 3 lakh people are jobless directly and indirectly it would impact more than a million people. Moreover, around Rs 15000 crore of investments has gone waste.

He said that they had requested the government that current regulation of 50 micron be in place since the alternatives are not good for the environment.

He said they asked them to give at least 7 years’ time to phase out this product and by that time would have some alternative products in place.

When asked since the ban was in place, what was their next move, he said they are in continuous talk with the state government.

He said the state government has deputed an expert committee of which he was a part and lot of recommendations of that committee have gone to the Empowerment Committee chaired by Ramdas Kadam, State Environment Minister and hope that a lot of products may be removed from the ban.

Some of the products asked to be removed from ban are plastic bags used by Kirana Stores, small industries like Lijjat Papad etc.

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First Published:Jun 25, 2018 4:40 PM IST