Acting Chief Justice inaugurates five Manjappai vending machines on Madras HC campus

Madras High Court Acting Chief Justice T. Raja (second from left) inaugurated five Manjappai (yellow cloth bag) vending machines on the Madras High Court campus on Thursday. From left: Environment Secretary Supriya Sahu, Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board Chairperson Jayanthi Murali look on. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

In a first step towards making the sprawling Madras High Court campus free of the harmful single-use plastic products, Acting Chief Justice T. Raja on Thursday inaugurated five Manjappai (traditional yellow cloth bag) dispensing machines and two reverse vending machines for disposing plastic bottles. Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram; Environment, Climate Change and Forests Secretary Supriya Sahu and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) chairperson Jayanthi Murali participated in the inaugural event, conducted by the State government on the High Court campus.

Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran had coordinated with the government and the TNPCB to get the machines installed on the High Court campus, after Justices S. Vaidyanathan and P.T. Asha felt that the campus should first become single-use plastics-free before replicating it across the State.

The AAG said that similar machines would soon be installed at the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court campus too and that the endeavour of the State was to put an end to harmful plastics.