Of Politics and plastic

Dilip Cherian India's 'Image Guru' and a diehard observer of the capital speaks up on pre- election conflict and plastics

Dilip Cherian India's 'Image Guru' and a diehard observer of the capital speaks up on pre- election conflict and plastics

As the Parliament winds down into its final week, the significance of the timing of Chief Election Commissioner N

Plastic Precautions? The plastic bag ban in the capital hasn't worked, and taken the shape of better quality polythene production instead. Will it make any difference, asks the author
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Gopalswami's allegations against his colleague Navin Chawla has not been lost. At least, not on those who have been following the present storm in Nirvachan Sadan. After all, who has a closet without a skeleton or two hanging in it? Many see Gopalswami's action itself as his closing salvo (he retires in April) in a long eventful story. Others see it as a way to ensure the BJP does not get mauled by a new CEC who is biased in the elections that he will finally oversee.

Still, irrespective of Gopalswami's allegations, the credibility of the Election Commission as an institution has received a rather nasty knock. Chawla is likely to play very cautious this time with the hope that all this sound and fury will play out and fade from public memory before the hustings, and if he plays fair through it. And meanwhile he hopes that his copious tears have melted the hearts that matter.

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Plastic surgery

The battlelines in the war on the plastic bag have now been drawn in Dilli. Four years into this practice, Mumbaikars are by now accustomed to the ban on plastic bags. The verdict came in 2005 when discarded plastic bags choked the drains and the sewerage and also caused water logging in Mumbai. It's not vanished quite, but a fight is on, some insist.

The clamour against the ban from hawkers, shopkeepers and restaurant owners is rising in both metros. The notification in Dilli has even declined the use of bags with a thickness of 40 microns and more since it's difficult to measure thickness on the spot. The option of imported biodegradable bags is expensive.

The government however, has given its nod to a new kind of plastic bag, which will be woven using old plastic. Four NGOs will manufacture these alternate bags. Until then, Dilliwallas will have to forage for alternatives to carry the week's grocery homeu00a0at least initially while the fear lasts. Will Dilli look better after plastic surgery?