New Delhi, Aug 17 (KNN) In his Independence Day address, the prime minister urged people of the nation to eliminate single-use plastic and use cloth and jute bags instead.

He said, “Let’s pick up plastic from our homes, roads, everywhere, and municipal bodies and gram panchayats should make arrangements for collecting it. We will take our first strong step to say goodbye to plastic use this October 2.”

Welcoming the ‘Ban on usage of Plastic’ from October 2, 2019, the Confederation of All India Traders Association (CAIT) in a communication sent to him assured full cooperation of seven crore strong trading community.

It said that traders fully support this move and will be pleased to launch a campaign across the Country among trading community of the Country.

However, presently large number of people are employed in manufacturing and trading of plastics and huge investments have been made in this business by the people therefore it is requested that some alternative business allied with their line should be made available to them so that they may not be out of their business & employment and their investment is saved, added CAIT.

It asserted that there are certain items which are essentially packed in plastic like Milk, Dairy Products etc. An alternate to these items needs to be identified as these are daily use items by the people.

CAIT has suggested the PM that a ‘Special Task Force’ may be constituted with senior officials, representatives of plastic industry and traders to study the impact of plastic ban on employment & trade and recommend remedial steps to the Government in a time bound period.

Secretary General of CAIT, Praveen Khandelwal said that 'Yes to Digital Payment- No to Cash' is one of the most basic fundamental to make India a cashless or less cash Country and CAIT is already educating traders across Country from year 2014 to accept and adopt digital payments and so far it could able to convert about 25per cent traders across Country to accept digital payments.

Gifting of cloth or jute Bag from forthcoming Diwali onwards is a unique initiative and the CAIT will be advising about 40 thousand Trade Associations across Country to educate their members to adopt this campaign and s gifting such bags also give to their customers against the cost price. It will certainly reduce the usage of Plastic in the Country, CAIT pointed.

It also suggested that an independent regulator for digital payments be constituted and National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) should be asked to intensify a campaign to take Rupay down the line across Country.