The North East Packaged Drinking Water Manufacturer’s Association (NEPDWMA) apprehended serious economic crisis affecting livelihood and other issues after the Government of Assam prohibited use of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles as packaged drinking water under various capacities.
The NEPDWMA has appealed to the Chief Minister of Assam to roll back the proposed ban on 500 ml and 1000 ml.
In a joint press meet at Tinsukia Press Club on Saturday, the office bearers of NEPDWMA and Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) stated that there are 206 Packaged Drinking Water (PDW) manufacturers mostly MSME scale operating in the state of Assam. The PET bottles of less than 1litre capacity are prohibited with effect from October 2, 2023 while the PET bottles with less than 2 litre capacities is effective from October 2, 2024, they said. Almost 6500 people are directly employed by PDW industry while an additional 9500 people are associated indirectly through distribution, logistics and sale channels. The press meet was addressed by Himangaraj Borthakur joint secretary NEPDWMA, Parakh Agarwal, Dip Choudhury, Bhagirot Parik and Prakash Baid national vice president CAIT.
Expressing concern, they said that imposing a limit on water bottles with capacity below 1 litre would lead an adverse effect on the Assam’s revenue; causing unemployment to more than 30,000 individuals besides may result in limited access to safe drinking water for general public. There are more than 10000 rag-pickers and 2000 people involved in other levels of recycling industry. They further pointed out that around 33000 families from Assam will be affected by the ban and out of 206 PDW manufacturing facilities most of them are MSME and 80 per cent of the owners are start-ups and 1st generation entrepreneurs who will find very difficult to recover. As majority of the manufacturers had established their units with bank loan, closure of units would led them to extreme debt. They also expressed astonishment as to why only PET bottles are targeted when these bottles which are not classified as Single Use Plastic (SUP) are used in many applications such as dairy products, edible oils, carbonated drinks, juices etc. They termed the ban is discriminatory in nature and violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
SRK Bharat
