Click to play videoNew Delhi: It’s been almost a month since the Delhi government announced a complete ban on plastic bags.
CNN-IBN finds plastic bags being sold across the city in big shopping malls and even in the constituency of the Chief Minister.
Just how seriously is the government taking its own ban, one wonders.
Delhi chief minister Shiela Dikshit and top ministers Raj Kumar Chauhan and Arvinder Singh Lovely may head the ministry but how seriously do the top ministers of the Delhi government take their own orders?
On 7th January 2009, Delhi government ordered a complete ban on the use, sale and storage of all kinds of plastic bags.
The first stop of the CNN-IBN team was chief minister Shiela Dikshit constituency. We stop by the state government owned Delhi Emporium.
The emporium is still handing out polythene bags. What is shocking is that this lapse has happened though the CM holds the environment portfolio too.
The correspondent of this channel shopped at the emporium and was given her entire purchases in plastic bags. This was a blatant and clear violation of the ban imposed by the Delhi government.
The team next went to the popular Reliance Fresh outlet in Gandhinagar, East Delhi.
Education and Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely's constituency must have stringent orders to follow rules, thought the team.
Instead the team was given a freehand to use as many polythene bags as they wanted with no one to stop them.
On their final destination, the team went to the constituency of the Urban Development Minister Rajkumar Chauhan.
The particular market that the team went to happens to be a plastic wholesale market. There seemed no fear of the law and it is business as usual. Incidentally, the minister himself is the President of the PVC market.
One shopkeeper even said that since the bigwigs were involved, no one would dare touch the plastic market.
Another enlightened the team with plain facts that there has been no ban and it is business as usual.
Ironically, it's the small shopkeepers who have stopped using polythene bags but the big shops in the top ministers’ constituency continue to ignore the order.
( With inputs from Bahar Dutt and Natasha Sehgal)
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.