Piravom panchayat will approach candidates of major political fronts to spare it the arduous task of cleaning up chunks of plastic and other non-biodegradable garbage once the dust kicked up by the by-poll campaign settles.
Panchayat president Sabu K. Jacob is about to request candidates of the LDF, the UDF and the BJP to reduce the usage of flex boards and plastic-based campaign materials though the constituency is already replete with them.
“Our panchayat was declared plastic-free after a hard fought battle. But we have not been able to fully comply with it largely due to the non-cooperation by the traders. The un-checked use of plastic in campaigning will further deteriorate the condition,” Mr. Jacob told The Hindu on Saturday. Unless the candidates respond favourably, the civic body will have a tough job on its hand, as it does not have any plastic treatment facility but simply bury it in holes.
Speedy availability
E.P. Jayarajan, the campaign manager of the LDF in Piravom, said that the speed with which flex boards could be readied made it so attractive. Plastic is also readily available in the market and it's for the government to regulate its use, he said. “We can hardly do anything about flex boards we already installed. But we will reduce its number from now on. How to clean off these things after the election will also be considered,” Mr. Jayarajan said.
N.P. Paulose, the chairman of the UDF election committee, said that it was neither practical nor feasible to avoid flex boards in the campaign scene. “Only limited days are left and we cannot afford to wait for banners made in cloth which take much more time compared to flex boards. It's also cheap,” he said.
Kerala State Pollution Control Board chairman K. Sajeevan said that official regulation of flex is not possible as its use has been permitted by the High Court in election campaign. Only the candidates can do something by volunteering not to use such campaign materials, he said.
The High Court in October 2010 had quashed the State Election Commission's order banning the use of flex boards for campaigning in that year's local body elections.
Environmentalist S. Sitaraman said that the campaign materials end up as non-biodegradable waste doing irreparable damage to the environment. Even flex boards seized by the authorities when the ban was in force were indiscriminately inflicting damage to the surroundings and people's health, he said.
