Soft drink manufacturers and importers in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands have appealed to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revoke the order of banning PET below two litres of volume immediate effect and thus give a new lease of life to the industries operating here in the islands.

In a letter to the prime minister, the manufacturers said that the decision of the local administration to ban the bottles has pushed the beverage industry towards closure. They said that before the administration had put the ban into effect from November 5, 2019, they had given the authorities in detailed written statements not to ban the PET bottles but to give the opportunity of implementing government policy regarding plastic bottles. “We have also pointed out humbly to the authorities that this kind of ban does not exist anywhere in our country and if implemented in the Andamans, it will mean closure of our manufacturing facility which is a part of the Make in India Programme, as the products under 2 litres are the ones that earn the majority of revenue in our respective businesses”.

They pointed out that government’s “ Standard Guidelines for Single Use plastic product including PET/PETE bottles used for packaging beverages including water, may not require prohibitive action and will continue under the ambit of recycling/processing channels under EPR”. This circular was widely published in newspapers and e-papers across the country but was being ignored by the administration in the A and N Islands. They appealed to the PM to revoke the ban with immediate effect in order to give a lease of life to the industries operating in the islands.

Read the letter below:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=17i9bm5yAhSXtaGRfg4DmTaQVNOuaJ5of

—India Legal Bureau