In a step to discourage littering of waste plastic pouches used for packing edible oil the Himachal Pradesh government has come out with an innovative idea of getting empty pouches back from consumers and ration card holders. Those who fail to bring these back to the Public Distribution System (PDS) outlets will not get the next months quota of edible oil. Diljit Dogra,Managing Director of the HP State Civil Supplies Corporation,said: We have taken this decision to maintain a clean and pollution-free environment in the state in view of the campaign to discourage plastic. From August,Dogra said,edible oil would be sold only to those consumers who would return empty pouches to the fair price shops. He said instructions had already been issued to all 128 fair price shops for strict implementation of the decision. Officials concerned have been instructed to immediately issue a similar order to all other fair price shops and depot holders in the state. The move comes in the wake of the guidelines recently issued by the Himachal Pradesh High Courts Green Bench to motivate the citizens to discourage the use of plastic. The state has already imposed a ban on the use of polythene. Dogra said the corporation had asked the consumers to keep the empty edible oil packs safely custody to be finally given at the time of purchasing oil from fair price shops and depot holders in the future It would be the responsibility of every depot holder to collect these empty pouches and further sell them for Rs 4 per kilogram to the public works department,he added. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal ordered Shimla Municipal Commissioner A N Sharma on Tuesday to impose on-the-spot fines on those found throwing used gutka and similar empty pouches on the Mall Road,The Ridge and other public places. Bhiwani honour killing: 2 heldOf the seven persons named in the suspected Bhiwani honour killing,two accused the girls father Dalbir and uncle Kuldeep were arrested on Tuesday. Police said the remaining were still at large. Monika,18,of Nimliwali village and Rinku,22,of Manhera village were allegedly tortured and hanged to death on Sunday. The bodies were found in the house of the girls uncle. The report of the postmortem conducted on Monday was awaited till the filing of this report.
