Carry-bag Hazard

The recent ban imposed by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) on use and sale of goods made out of thermocol and plastic materials including carry-bags, plates, cups and similar other products is certainly in the right direction, and the authority deserves appreciation from all sections of  citizens. But we request the GMC authority to reconsider their decision to charge the price of carry-bags to be fixed by the GMC instead of supply by the shopkeepers free of cost to their customers. As senior citizens, we strongly oppose this and request the GMC to impose a complete ban on the use of carry-bags.

Carry-bags and other items made out of plastic/thermocol not only threaten the environment but they also help in the creation of artificial flood during the rainy season, mainly due to dumping of items made out of plastic and thermocol. It may be recalled that a similar ban was also imposed by the Kamrup (Metro) district authority/GMC earlier, but due to lack of strict implementation of such orders by the authority concerned, the citizens of Guwahati are using various items made out of plastics/thermocol, including carry-bags, till date. Will the authority explain the reason for non-implementation of such ban order?

We request all the officials of GMC/district authority to take all steps to implement the ban order seriously so that Guwahati city may emerge as one of the plastic/thermocol-free cities of the country. We also request the citizens of Guwahati to avoid using carry bags and other items manufactured out of plastic/thermocol in their own interest.

We have noticed that since the last couple of months, various NGOs have been educating the residents of Guwahati against the use of plastic items, carry bags etc. This is a good sign.

We must remain conscious to keep our areas clean

We also request the district authority and the GMC that instead of imposing fine on petty retailers selling plastic materials and for providing carry bags to the customers, in our view it will be worthwhile to impose heavy fine on the wholesalers of these items and also take stringent action like cancellation of their trading licence in case they violate the GMC’s order of trading plastic items and carry-bags

Pradip Kakati,1, Nabagraha Path, Guwahati-3.

Recall Mercy Petitions Wrongly Decided

It refers to President Secretariat issuing clarification on soon-to-retire President Pratibha Patil being criticized for making a record by till now pardoning 35 rarest of the rare dreaded criminals from death-sentence they really deserved. Clarification has put onus on Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for being extra ‘merciful’ for undeserved ones where present Union Home Minister reversed earlier decision of rejecting mercy-petitions by his two predecessors by recalling files from Rashtrapati Bhawan. It is unjustified to interfere so liberally with Supreme Court decisions. All pardoned cases of mercy-petitions by recalling files should be reviewed to provide justice to family-members of victims. System may be formulated whereby it may be made mandatory to hear family-members of victims before pardoning convicts of death-sentence.   

On contrast, 32-pages of file-notings reveal about a case of a poor young man Ravji alias Ram Chandra who was supersonically hanged to death in the year 1996 in less than three years of murdering his family in the year 1993 after crossing all stages of trial court, High Court, Supreme Court and mercy-petition decided in record six days by the then President Dr Shankerdayal Sharma even though no deciding-authority could establish motivation for crime, evidently the poor fellow had neither influence nor money to engage costly lawyers. It was indeed a murder of an insane person by system, who did the crime only out of his insanity. Even his mercy-petition was drafted by some lay-person who just replaced name of petitioner by retaining facts and circumstances same from where the mercy-petition was copied.

Subash C. Agrawal, Dariba, Chandni Chowk, Delhi-6.