Hyderabad high court makes plastic ban in temples compulsory

Hyderabad:  The Hyderabad high court directed Telangana government that plastic should be banned in the premises of every temple in the state.

The two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice SV Bhatt, made plastic ban in temple premises compulsory. The HC was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) after going through a report submitted by the Warangal district judge on the deplorable status of facilities for devotees in temples of Warangal.

However, Advocate General of Telangana, BS Prasad Rao said that it was difficult to implement a complete ban as there is a lot of pressure from the plastic manufacturing industry.

“The industry owners will resist the ban, they will use political influence and money power. Only by withstanding the pressure, ban would be possible. Under Environmental Protection Act, abundant powers are available to the government, utilise it to ensure the compliance of the orders of the court,” the Chief Justice said.

The Andhra Pradesh and Telangana advocate generals have been directed to be ready with arguments and suggestions to overcome the menace caused by use of plastic in temple premises. The ruling has been made to ensure better and safer facilities to devotees.

Devotees cannot get plastic inside the temple nor any item can be given to devotees wrapped in plastic material, told the high court.

The case has been adjourned and the next hearing has been fixed after two weeks.  

Earlier, the two-judge bench had slammed the Pollution Control Board, Endowments department officials on the same and had sought a detailed action plan on how the direction to ban plastic will be implemented. It said that the environment in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was untidy.

They said that, human beings were the worst tourists to visit planet earth, causing irreversible damage to the environment.

 

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