Officials urged to ensure ban on polythene bags

The Punjab Environment Minister Begum Zakia Shahnawaz has directed the officers to strictly ensure ban on production of black shopping bags and plastic bags having thickness less than 15 micron. She was presiding over a departmental meeting here, she also asked her staff to negotiate with the shopping bag manufacturers to make the ban more effective as these plastic bags lead to diseases among the users.
Director Environment Protection Naseem ur Rehman briefed the meeting about the steps taken to stop usage of such bags. The Minister hoped that the raids being carried out by special teams of the department to check sale of prohibited bags would fetch far reaching positive impact. The meeting was attended by the Director Planning & Development Waseem Cheema, Director Operation Naseem ur Rehman Shah and heads of the district teams of the environment department.