Parliamentary panel pulls up central, state agencies over plastic pollution

A parliamentary panel has criticised central and state agencies over their lackadaisical approach in handling and monitoring plastic waste in the country. Expressing disappointment at the lackadaisical approach of the CPCB in handling the problem of pollution, the committee recommended that the ministry, in coordination with CPCBSPCBs, take concrete steps in this regard.

A parliamentary panel has criticised central and state agencies over their ''lackadaisical'' approach in handling and monitoring plastic waste in the country. In a report on plastic pollution, the 22-member Public Accounts Committee said that agencies have not been able to enforce the ban on single-use plastic as ''plastic can still be seen strewn across all the urban and rural areas of the country''. The committee headed by Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury conducted an audit in Delhi, Punjab and Sikkim to ascertain the effectiveness and compliance of Plastic Waste Management Rules in the 2015-20 period.

The panel reviewed waste management activities of the environment ministry, Central Pollution Control Board, state pollution control boards/committees and urban development department of major metropolitan cities. The findings revealed a ''serious lack of mechanism for assessment of generation of plastic waste, its collection and safe disposal'', the panel said.

Stakeholders, including the ministry, CPCB, SPCBs/ PCCs are not working in tandem to control generation, establishing an effective system for collection and safe disposal of plastic waste, it said.

The committee found that state urban departments provide incomplete and invalidated data to the ministry for decision-making due to a lack of uniform methodology for assessment.

The committee said plastic waste growth projections were necessary to formulate a comprehensive waste management policy, but the CPCB has not done this. Expressing disappointment at the ''lackadaisical'' approach of the CPCB in handling the problem of pollution, the committee recommended that the ministry, in coordination with CPCB/SPCBs, take concrete steps in this regard.