The Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara has said that the Excise department of Uttarakhand is paying no heed to the order of Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) on the use of holograms made from banned single use plastic in the liquor bottles sold in the State. Interacting with the media-persons at the State headquarters of the Congress party here on Thursday Mahara said that the Congress leader Abhinav Thapar had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which he brought the issue to his notice. Taking cognisance of the complaint the PMO directed the MoEF to take note on which the ministry on January 18 this year directed the excise commissioner government of Uttarakhand and the member secretary of the Uttarakhand pollution control board submit an Action Taken Report (ATR) on the issue within three weeks. He said that both the excise department and the pollution control board have not submitted the ATR yet.
Mahara said that the action of the state BJP government is completely in contradiction of the declaration made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the ramparts of Red Fort on August 15, 2019 that a complete ban should be imposed on single use plastic. He said that the excise department released a tender for holograms to be used in the liquor bottles on November 20, 2023 in which they mentioned that the holograms should be of 36 micron plastic even though the plastic of this specification is banned by the MoEF.
Congress leader Abhinav Thapar said that the Excise department intends to use this plastic hologram on 150 crore bottles of liquor which will cause irreparable damage to the environment in Uttarakhand.
General secretary of state Congress Mahendra Singh Negi, spokesperson Sheeshpal Singh Bisht and Mahanagar president Jaswinder Singh Gogi were present on the occasion.
