odzer's blog

On the 13th we voted in Chandigarh, Usually for me its just a two minute walk to the polling station. On the way I stopped to have a chat with the father of a friend who was sitting at a political party’s tent. Inside the polling station I was surprised to see a line of people waiting to cast their vote because usually its just a walk in and walk out affair. After a wait of around ten minutes I could show my identity and proceed to vote.

As I had expected the congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal won by quite a margin. This election was special in Chandigarh because of two reasons. The first we had major parties trying to win the seat for the first time, in the past it was only a competition between the Congress and the BJP. Second voters turned out in huge numbers, in some parts of the city voting reached 85%, over all the city vote percentage was around 65%. On a sadder note the brother of the BJP candidate died after election results were declared due to a heart attack. When you are the richest city in the country you don’t usually expect such percentages. The people this time were determined to come and show their resolve to vote. It was very nice to see many first time voters and young people. The atmosphere in the polling center was polite and respectful. The guy who marked my finger even called me “Sir”. Something that I don’t really expect from an Indian public servant.

I would encourage everyone to vote in the next elections whenever they get a chance. Not because your vote will or not make a difference but because you can vote. Although I am opposed to compulsory voting I think when people get the encouragement they will come out. As for the mark on my finger now I am curious how many months it will take to vanish, however the one good thing about this is that I can now be amazed at how fast finger nails grow.

Priyank Says :

To add some spice to our rather routine blogging life, Odzer and I collaborated on this photo-blog post. It shows certain common urban features in Toronto (Canada) where I live and Chandigarh (India) where he lives.I loved doing this interesting post.It was very interesting to do this post. The standardization of cities around the world amazes me. All these pictures are from my neighborhood and I am always armed with my camera, taking hundreds of pictures.”

Odzer Says :

Some days ago Priyank and I have decided to collaborate and create a photo post together. The idea was to find common aspects between the cities of Toronto and Chandigarh. At first I thought it would be radically different but at the same time having seen some cities in various countries I thought it shall also be boringly same. The results are for all of you to view in the pictures here. I really enjoyed going around the town taking pictures and since I live in India at least on two occasions people actually came up to me and asked what I was doing. At one time when I was taking the graffiti picture an old couple walked up to me and asked a friend who was with me at that time what the graffiti meant. When I was taking a picture of the man hole cover a chai-wala boy (a boy whose job it is to deliver tea), wanted me to photograph him instead of the manhole. He was very annoyed about the fact that I was wasting my time taking pictures of a gutter cover. He actually would not even budge from my shot. I think that both of us agree that we will be doing a bit more of posts like this in the future. Not only does it make for us a nice change from our regular posts but also gives us an interesting activity for half a day or so!

I wake up fairly late but I was moved out of my bed yesterday by the loud shrill voice of my neighbours wife. She sounded like a rabid cat. As I could not help my morbid curiosity and she was screaming at the bin men who had come to collect the payment for their services I eavesdropped. It seems that our local ’safai karamchari’s’ or bin men have decided to work independently from the association that runs this area. Now some days ago I had received a letter from this association which is mostly a silver haired club warning me about the dangers of paying the garbage men who had dared to step out of their domain.

Interestingly this letter does not mention anything significant about garbage collection except the fact that if the association loses control of the garbage collection then the prices for such services are sure to shoot up. They are also worried about the fact that the garbage collection guys will take many days off. So what are the conditions in which these guys have to work? Garbage in India is just a mess, literally. People seldom use bin liners or bags and its collected in cycle carts and it smells. These guys handle this noxious stuff with their bare hands. Probably they get paid a pittance and I can imagine they are sick and tired of these old fuddy-duddies telling them what to do all the time. So I say yeah let the garbage guys run the garbage. I am sure they can do a better job and for once let them tell people how they want their garbage laid out for them. It is time that the grossly spoiled people of this country learn how to manage their trash.

As for the price at the moment we are paying around 150 Rupees or around US$ 4 for garbage collection services. This has to be paid every third month. I think it is a ridiculous price per house for such services. It should be this much at least per month! People do not mind paying for useless things here so why not pay to have a cleaner environment around them? Remember the plastic ban? Which has failed by the way since plastic bags without handles are now used by everyone. When I said in my previous posts that garbage was the main issue I was not that wrong. This post basically proves it. I am glad the bin men have gone on the war path. Basically we are all in a mess.

Every year around this time the Municipal Corporation blooms in to action and organises a chrysanthemum show. This time it was held between December 12-14 at the Terraced Garden in Sector 33. As with all the flower shows that they organise this one is the same. It is self congratulatory, ill-organised, botanically irrelevant and full of bored wives of Chandigarh’s bureaucrats. The prize winning flowers are mostly always from the Administration itself.

Having said that I must say that at least it is a chance to see some flowers even though if they are basically destroyed by the thousands upon thousands of visiting public with their ill-mannered loud children. I just happened to be there at this years show after many years of skipping it consciously. Of course I had not expected any change, they had the same tired looking displays of marigold stuffed animals. The same old pots put in a circular fashion etc etc. I managed to take some pictures of some chrysanthemums which I particularly happened to like and we purchased some “Ber” which is a sort of an Indian fruit. In Chandigarh you can find the red variety of these things all around the city and poor people usually gather them and sell them up for some profit.

I have often thought about this but flower arrangement is not one of the strongest of traits among Indo-European people. It seems there is a sense of beauty that is missing from our genes. Most of the arrangements that I have seen in India seem to have no ’style’ at all. It is just basically some flowers that have been put there. However we seem to be a bit better at planning geometerical gardens. I think one should stick to what one does the best. Would it not have been just wonderful if they had just used the whole garden as a display? They could have grown the chrysanthemums in the garden itself and opened the garden to the public. There is no need to have this vulgar stage and put sofa’s for the benefit of the so called VIPs. I am sure the VIPs could enjoy a stroll around the garden as well. There is no need for camel rides! What do camels have to do with a flower show! It seems that all they can do is just put a jumble of things together to attract a “crowd”. Flower shows should be for the benefit of the people that like flowers, there are plenty of events that you can do which can be transformed in to a fair. I guess it is again our Chandigarh Administration who thinks that it knows the best for everyone. I am basically irked at these bureaucratic types who think that they are doing such a good job at running this city. Well I have some news for you guys, you are not.

This post is in response and in protest of Chandigarh Administration and its Department of Environment. I will continue to put updates periodically unless the notification to ban plastic bags is either withdrawn by the Administration or is struck down by the courts. It is now my intention to fight the government on this online because I see this as a mega downgrade in my quality of life. All of those who are affected by this ban in any way are requested to use the contact me form (opens in a new window) so that we can formulate strategy to fight this ban. Regular posts will continue on this blog as usual.

Enter the recyclable bag!

Another packaging disaster, you see a regular handleless plastic bag with a paper bag inside which contains walnuts. Imagine the waste! Previously it would be just a plastic bag! Just behind you see the new expensive recyclable

How much are you willing to pay for a shopping bag? I am willing to pay nothing. Like all good things in life a shopping bag should come free. Why? Well the reason is simple enough. Shopping for a lot of people is a very impulsive activity and you have no idea what you will end up buying. So you basically should get a bag to carry your things home. Ever since our stupid government decided to ban plastic bags we have had strange issues. In the first weeks of this ban we had no bags at all to carry produce. In the second week we got plastic bags back but without any handles. Finally around the third week we finally saw some wonderful recyclable bags. What are these bags? How much do they cost? Are they available everywhere?

Well it seems at first sight that these bags are made out of some sort of synthetic fiber. As far as I remember my chemistry synthetic fibers do not biodegrade. So basically they are just fancier plastic bags. Secondly they cost an arm and a leg. You can expect to pay anywhere between Rupees 5 to 20 per bag at different stores. Actually at most stores they cost well above Rupees 10 per bag. So if you buy groceries for a week just keep Rs 40 or almost 1 US$ for shopping bags. Now lets just do the math, if we were to use these bags as conveniently as we used plastic bags :

40X4 = Rs. 120 per month
120X12= Rs. 1440 per year

Now I have assumed that it costs Rs. 10 per bag. Of course it might cost more or it might cost less. It may also be that you decide that you may carry one of these bags with you to prevent paying for them each time. However I can not imagine anyone carrying half a dozen ‘recyclable’ bags with them each time. I can’t even seem to remember to carry one and basically whenever you need a bag you do not have one. Rs. 1440 per year may not seem much but trust me it can buy you a lot in India, actually that might be around one and half weeks of groceries for a small family. So how much does it really cost the store owners? I can imagine a lot because these bags are only available at the higher end stores. Regular shop keepers and shop keepers that use push carts usually are now using handle less plastic bags to sell their wares. Some use paper bags. So basically the ban has led us no where and it is a complete and utter failure.

The availability of these so called recyclable bags is as good as being not available. So how is the world coping? The other day I went to a sports shop to buy some weights. It was a completely impulsive stop because I needed some lighter weights for the bar bell I own and I was just reminded of it when I saw the store. The guy gave me 2 Kg weights in a paper bag! He then advised me to be “careful” and told me that it will “tear”. The look on the store owners face was one of misery. Most people seem to be deeply unhappy with the government here and the problem is that we can not even get rid of this government. So all we can do is use mediums like these to express our unhappiness.

This post is in response and in protest of Chandigarh Administration and its Department of Environment. I will continue to put updates periodically unless the notification to ban plastic bags is either withdrawn by the Administration or is struck down by the courts. It is now my intention to fight the government on this online because I see this as a mega downgrade in my quality of life. All of those who are affected by this ban in any way are requested to use the contact me form (opens in a new window) so that we can formulate strategy to fight this ban. Regular posts will continue on this blog as usual.

City Beautiful? Who are they kidding!!!!!

I must warn you that this is going to be a long post. I promised last week that I would be writing something about garbage ‘management’ in my city and well to be honest also to a large extent about this country. No one will dispute that India is a dirty and a filthy place. As a lot of countries it has its good sides and its bad sides but the piles of stinking garbage lying around in the open in our cities is definitely is a great put off. This week the Indian flag landed on the moon and we have made great progress in many fields over the last couple of decades. However we havent been able to solve the litter lining our streets in the 5000 years of our civilizations glorious existance. Now do not get me wrong I probably live in one of the cleanest of Indian cities if not the THE cleanest city. However it is not difficult to see how little effort they put in to managing the garbage. I am not going to oversimplify the problem a large part of the problem is the people themselves. The way they litter the cities is just dreadful. No one bothers to use the bins and people just throw their refuse anywhere they see. As for household trash no one separates their garbage here. Plastic, household kitchen waste, toxic waste all go in this one giant trash can which is usually not lined with any plastic bags. So you have really disgusting stinking and smelly trash cans. What really makes it worse is that people who deal with the trash or the bin men usually work without any equipment to handle the trash properly. The country that is planning to send men to the moon does not even provide its municipal workers with gloves or overalls! Does not matter if they die of diseases like hepatitis or cholera.

So how is the city that has banned plastic bags changed the way it manages garbage to protect the environment. The answer is that it has not. Instead of putting in money to educate people how  to dispose of trash properly or training staff they have taken this so called ban as be it and end it of the situation. When you have fixed basic sanitation you can have higher aims and do something about the environment etc but if you can not even manage the garbage and lets honestly ask ourselves is that not a municipal and local governments number one job you have no right to tell people about the virtues of using or not using a particular type of carry bag! The government is simply getting away by pulling off a publicity stunt while the people ignore the stink of the reality.  As you can see from the images in the gallery above the lies and untruths of our administration stink to high heavens. Shame on you Chandigarh Administration and Municipal Corporation, you are exposed for your incompetence. In fact all of these photos were taken in central Chandigarh! I can not even imagine what the condition must be in outer areas. I am reminded of a poem I once recited when I was a kid at school. I am posting it below :-

SARAH CYNTHIA SYLVIA STOUT
by Shel Silverstein

Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would not take the garbage out.
She’d wash the dishes and scrub the pans
Cook the yams and spice the hams,
And though her parents would scream and shout,
She simply would not take the garbage out.
And so it piled up to the ceiling:
Coffee grounds, potato peelings,
Brown bananas and rotten peas,
Chunks of sour cottage cheese.
It filled the can, it covered the floor,
It cracked the windows and blocked the door,
With bacon rinds and chicken bones,
Drippy ends of ice cream cones,
Prune pits, peach pits, orange peels,
Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal,
Pizza crusts and withered greens,
Soggy beans, and tangerines,
Crusts of black-burned buttered toast,
Grisly bits of beefy roast.
The garbage rolled on down the halls,
It raised the roof, it broke the walls,
I mean, greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,
Blobs of gooey bubble gum,
Cellophane from old bologna,
Rubbery, blubbery macaroni,
Peanut butter, caked and dry,
Curdled milk, and crusts of pie,
Rotting melons, dried-up mustard,
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,
Cold French fries and rancid meat,
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.
At last the garbage reached so high
That finally it touched the sky,
And none of her friends would come to play,
And all of her neighbors moved away;
And finally, Sarah Cynthia Stout
Said, “Okay, I’ll take the garbage out!”
But then, of course it was too late,
The garbage reached across the state,
From New York to the Golden Gate;
And there in the garbage she did hate
Poor Sarah met an awful fate
That I cannot right now relate
Because the hour is much too late
But children, remember Sarah Stout,
And always take the garbage out.

So all in all one thing that is pretty clear is that someone or the other is not doing their job as it should be done. The garbage pile reeks of incompetence. Now if the people who have banned plastic bags wake up from their dreamy slumber and confront the real problem? The problem of our filthy ways? If we just threw the trash in a proper manner surely we can even manage plastic bags? As a parting note though I would like to say something else. Garbage disposal is not free in Chandigarh, we have to pay bin men every 3 months although the amount we pay is a pittance around 120 INR or US$ 2.46 at today’s exchange rate. This money does not go to them but the local association that manages the area where you live. I had a chance to have a brief interview with my trash guy this week and I asked him some questions. He informs me that after they have picked the garbage from homes they seperate the garbage with their bare hands and pick out all the things that they can sell like cardboard etc. Previously they would also have the ragpickers take out the plastic bags which they can not do anymore. Most of Chandigarh’s poorest of the poor have been also deprived of their one source of living. I think it is time that environment enthusiasts wake up and take stock of some real problems instead of making new ones.

This post is in response and in protest of Chandigarh Administration and its Department of Environment. I will continue to put updates periodically unless the notification to ban plastic bags is either withdrawn by the Administration or is struck down by the courts. It is now my intention to fight the government on this online because I see this as a mega downgrade in my quality of life. All of those who are affected by this ban in any way are requested to use the contact me form (opens in a new window) so that we can formulate strategy to fight this ban. Regular posts will continue on this blog as usual.

A corrupt and inefficient administration can only make inefficient laws.

What is the quality of your government? It is a question that people often do not ask themselves. What exactly do you get in return for your tax rupee? If you are going to pay for the entire show, should you accept poor service from the government? Government is not funded by some magic fund, it extracts its pound of flesh. If it then passes laws that are basically inefficient the working of such administration requires greater scrutiny. I am a busy man and I have had no time yet to to ask the administration of chandigarh any direct questions.  I am pondering about doing that later and the fact that my previous questions are still unanswered by the Department of Environment of Chandigarh Administration does not motivate me to demand answers from them directly at the moment. So I used the tools available to me and found some answers on my own.

1. Why did my letter to the department of environment go unanswered?

Answer: Most likely because they have no system in place to answer questions of their constituents or the people they rule through e-mail. Apparently the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh has spent thousands if not hundreds of thousands on computers, laptops, information technology equipment but has nothing in place to answer e-mails. This was made apparent by a news story I found here.

2. How serious is the Chandigarh Administration  and Municipal Corporation when it comes to planning and execution of various projects? What is their general track record?

   300 Million Rupee Garbage Processing Plant : Doomed from Day 1. This project is basically non functional. The municipal government is responsible for its working. Just to make that clear. The Tribune story on that can be found here.

   Mechanical Sweeping Machines : Purchased for 30 Million Rupees these parking lot cleaning machines are supposed to clean our roads. These were supposed to be used at night time when there is no traffic but they are being deployed during full rush hour traffic. The people who purchased these machines apparently traveled all the way to Italy to inspect them when similar machines were available down a 3 hour train ride in Delhi! More on useless foreign trips of our corrupt and dishonest bureaucratic oligarchy type rulers later on in this post.

   Underpasses : Not one has been constructed! Although enough funds were spent in Belgium while investigating how to build them, where and how to even maintain them. Maintenance for non existing underpasses!

   Firefighting equipment : Apparently a ladder was purchased for 25.1 million Rupees from Finland which is never deployed for the fire department! The details of all these sordid purchases can be found here.

Answer :The more I searched the more disappointed I got. Apparently they have a whole media trail leading up to them that proves that they are basically excuse the term pissing away public wealth. It is so terrible that there is even no finesse even when it comes to covering up their tracks.

3. Are the officers of the Administration squandering away public wealth?

Answer : Unfortunately yes. Between 2005-07, Krishna Mohan a former Home Secretary of the Administration spent an amazing Rs. 1.9 million, former Finance Secretary S.K. Sandhu spent almost a cool one million and junior officers like the Tourism Director for this disgusting and vile administration Vivek Atray spent Rs 1.6 million! So now you might ask what did they spent it all on. Foreign trips!!! They travelled business class or First Class. Stayed at the best hotels and even billed their theater tickets, entertainment expenses etc to the government. Details about their adventures in Europe and elsewhere can be found by clicking here, here and here.

So now you might ask me what does all of the above have to do with the ban on plastic bags. It is very simple. Lets just have a rough calculation of the money that was squandered away by our environment conscious administration on the topics we covered in this post alone. Here we go.

Chandigarh Administration’s Wasteful Expenditure Bill According to Odzer.Com

Projects that never paid off or took off

Garbage Disposal Plant : Rs. 300,000,000.00

Street Sweeping Machines : Rs. 30,000,000.00

Hydraulic Ladder : Rs. 25,100,000.00

Foreign trips made by various city officials with the Administration  : Rs. 5,000,000.00

Grand TOTAL : Rs. 360,100,00.00 or around US$ 727,041.90

So now lets see what you can do with that kind of money? Can you buy a plant to recycle the whole cities plastic? Well one idea can be that you should use plastic as a construction material which is already being considered by Cochi in Kerala. The price tag around 25 million rupees. 5 million less than the non functional garbage processing unit we have in place right now! Even the Chinese seem to have been putting in plastic recycling plants a country that is notorious for its pollution. Beijing just put in one at the cost of US$ 37.5 million.The Chinese are aiming to recycle plastic back in to polyster though instead of using it as contruction material. In fact the plant being considered by Kochi is far cheaper and made in India! I am not even sure we need such a huge plant to recycle our plastic in this city. In fact I am not in to the business of running the government but even I can see that in the amount of money they have just thrown away in the last few years they could have effectively solved this city’s plastic problem effectively. They might even have had some surplus funds to educate people regarding not littering the streets and seperating their garbage! In fact I am going to do next week’s post on garbage seperation. So for now all I will say is that to me it is clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Chandigarh Administration and the Municipal government are guilty of a misinformation and a deception campaign. They had the means and the ability to solve environmental problems in another way except imposing this stupid ban that is leading to such agony.

This post is in response and in protest of Chandigarh Administration and its Department of Environment. I will continue to put updates periodically unless the notification to ban plastic bags is either withdrawn by the Administration or is struck down by the courts. It is now my intention to fight the government on this online because I see this as a mega downgrade in my quality of life. All of those who are affected by this ban in any way are requested to use the contact me form (opens in a new window) so that we can formulate strategy to fight this ban. Regular posts will continue on this blog as usual.

Plastic ban results in more plastic!

Plastic ban results in more plastic!

Writing about a plastic ban in Chandigarh can result in some curious reactions. I have observed some on my blog as well as in life. I am going to share some now. Some common things that people have told me so far have been : -

1. Why don’t you simply use a cloth bag?

Well because I do not want to, though somehow it does not seem to be reason enough for some people. I find them inconvenient and constricting. They are also impractical for my shopping style. Actually I have noticed I have just stopped enjoying shopping because it means I have to do it as a chore instead of being able to do it spontaneously whenever I wanted to.

2. Plastic is not biodegradable, paper is.

True, but plastic is recyclable. In any case since plastic is not TOTALLY banned it needs to be recycled anyway so why don’t you just recycle carry bags as well?

3. Plastic like bags are available and they are also recyclable.

Not here. The government here has banned plastic bags without providing any alternatives except paper bags. Paper bags are not suitable to carry heavy, wet, refrigerated or liquid products.

So on and so forth, moving on. The plastic ban is actually taking a curious turn. It turns out that the retailers have finally found a loophole! The administration has banned carry bags but not plastic bags that do not have “handles”. He he he. So now they are using inferior quality handleless plastic bags which are actually thinner than our previous carry bags to put heavy or leaky things. These bags though inconvenient because they can not be carried do save some people the inconvenience of cleaning their poor cloth or jute bags which might get soiled otherwise by dirty, leaky or runny produce. However this also means we are now using far more plastic bags than we were using before. I am posting a photo of my vegetable shopping the other day where we purchased vegetables and they packed and sealed them in individual plastic bags before selling us a 5 Rupee paper bag to carry it all to home in. The most part of the journey home I kept laughing hysterically at the irony of the situation. It seems to me the environment enthusiasts had not thought of this scenario. In fact they had not thought of the scenarios that would arise from such an impractical ban at all before imposing it. As such these type of people often enough do not think of convenience or practical approaches to life because they are mother earth fan boys/girls. Anyway I am sure the head of the government here is such a fan boy because I hear next they will be making every house owner in this city put on a solar water heating system that costs thousands of rupees! Whether you can afford it or not. As a property owner of course I will never do anything to deface my house. Though they do not care about what we want or not because for them the cost of such measures, nor the desire of the people is of any consideration. This is the type of idiotic government we have which rules by imposition, decree and without any democratic mandate.

This post is in response and in protest of Chandigarh Administration and its Department of Environment. I will continue to put updates periodically unless the notification to ban plastic bags is either withdrawn by the Administration or is struck down by the courts. It is now my intention to fight the government on this online because I see this as a mega downgrade in my quality of life. All of those who are affected by this ban in any way are requested to use the contact me form (opens in a new window) so that we can formulate strategy to fight this ban. Regular posts will continue on this blog as usual.

When the government refuses to read its e-mail

Last week I wrote a letter to the Director of The Department of Environment, Chandigarh Administration. His name is Mr. Ishwar Singh. I did not really expect a reply but I had this faint hope that the government here does reply to the e-mails of the people who they supposedly represent. It seems they give two hoots! So I am transforming my private e-mail to the Director in to an open letter. The e-mail ID that it was sent to is dcf@chd.nic.in. Please Mr. Director if you read this letter do leave a reply!

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you regarding the recent complete ban on plastic
bags that your department has strived to impose upon the public of
Chandigarh. This ban is ill conceived and unfair. At the most it is
just a publicity stunt of your administration at the cost of the
quality of life of the people of this city. I intend therefore to
oppose this law in the media and on the internet to raise awareness
regarding how illogical it is. I am going to raise some points in
this e-mail and direct your attention towards them and as the
director of the agency responsible for environment in my city I
imagine it is your responsibility to respond to each of them.

1) Paper bags offer no alternatives : Paper takes up far more space
in landfills than plastic ever will. It takes more energy to
recycle paper than plastic and paper is basically made out of food.
It is more detrimental to use paper than plastic as carry bags.
Paper bags in Chandigarh are lousily made (and that is putting it
lightly) and they can not be used to carry heavy loads. They break
and people who carry supplies in them often face situations where
they have leaking, broken, spilit or falling produce from their
bags.

2) Plastic is recyclable and since it is not sourced from precious
wood it should be recycled. The administration will have to recycle
plastic anyway since you have not banned plastic packaging so why
not do it on a larger scale and recycle plastic carry bags as well?

3) Carrying your own bag to the markets may sound as the ideal
solution but it is clearly not. Consider my own case. I am an
impulsive shopper and I can shop even if I have not planned to do
so. Carrying your own bags means that you are restricted to the
amount that can fit in the bags that you have taken from home. This
is preposterous. Is the administration not restricting commerce
now? What right does the government have to influence consumer
spending and behaviour in a free, fair and a democratic country?
Does the government now expect every individual to carry a backpack
all the time? This is clearly draconian and unacceptable.

4) Jute or Paper bags do not make suitable carrying receptacles for
several products especially dairy and meat products. Newsprint
paper bags used in this country are toxic because ink is not meant
for human consumption! Why has the government not taken action to
ban those?

5) Plastic bags blocking drains is not an adequate excuse to ban
such bags because such blockages result from either the
administration or the municipal government’s failure to clean up
this city or from the problem of littering. Instead you should have
focussed your energies on cleaning up the city, recycling,
modification of  public behaviour by encouraging segregation of
waste etc.

6) Environment should not be allowed to  affect* commerce and the economy at large.
With alternatives available to the consumers today such bans are
irrational. I intend now to do most of my shopping outside of
Chandigarh in the adjoining towns because they do not have any bans
on carry bags and as such I find that far more convenient than
spending my money on either jute bags or trying to carry goods in
paper bags that do not last for even seconds let alone hours.

7) Other countries have no such measures and still do not get any
problems by using plastic bags including the excuses the
administration is giving like chocked drains. It means that
basically like I said earlier you are punishing the public for your
failures.

Overall your agency is responsible for the welfare of the people of
the city and its environment and I expected better from it than
imposing blanket bans which do not succeed in any case. I will be
publishing articles, blogs, starting petitions, writing to
newspapers and giving interviews wherever possible in highlighting
the quality of life issues that this law has led to in this city so
that similar laws are not adopted elsewhere and public opinion is
created for the revocation of this erring notification. Any
comments that you make will of course be subject to public
disclosure therefore. I am sure as a public servant your are
committed to the answering of queries of the people in your area.

You have my warm regards,

odzer

* Oops I wrote something different than what I intended.

This post is in response and in protest of Chandigarh Administration and its Department of Environment. I will continue to put updates periodically unless the notification to ban plastic bags is either withdrawn by the Administration or is struck down by the courts. It is now my intention to fight the government on this online because I see this as a mega downgrade in my quality of life. All of those who are affected by this ban in any way are requested to use the contact me form (opens in a new window) so that we can formulate strategy to fight this ban. Regular posts will continue on this blog as usual.

Today I went to drop off my mother who came to visit me and decided to drop in to one of my favourite stores to buy some snacks. We had decided to visit the store because it looked like rain and we had nothing better to do anyway. After shopping when I went to checkout the man tried putting a pack of Yakult in to a paper bag but since it had come right out of a fridge it had condensation on it and the paper bag just fell apart in his hands. So he proceeded to wrap it in newspaper and I insisted on a plastic bag. Of course knowing well he can not give me any. So they had the guy at the checkout making these beautiful and neat packages in old newspapers. Old Newspapers!!!! I have no idea where these newspapers have been before they were deployed as packaging material could even have been the store owners kitty litter lining for all I know and I am sure newspapers are toxic to humans much more than plastic bags ever can be. Then he proceeded to wrap the package with a nice plastic tape….Do you see the irony here?

Now I have this huge parcel for just a few snacks and if I were to carry home my weekly groceries in newspaper wrap it would take me around 50 of these. Do you think anyone can reasonably carry such packets. Could you imagine even carrying around 4 of these if you had been to 4 different stores? When I reached home the wrapped Yakult had already made the newspaper soggy though you can not see that well in the picture here. I just made it home before the rain broke through though if I had been some minutes late the paper would have melted away leaving me again with picking up soggy drenched produce from the pavement. Oh and all those magical jute substitute bags will not be available because all those poor NGO worker types can never match the supply by making jute bags with hand. We have 1.5 million people in this city and you can multiply that number with anything you like in your mind to imagine how many bag substitutes we need.

I intend to continue to write articles detailing about my adventures in the ” plastic free ” wonderland we call Chandigarh.