It would be environment friendly election campaign this time. The local vendors here have come up with variety of publicity articles made eco-friendly materials. Baring a few, most of the articles are made from like products like papers, metals and fabric including cotton, satin and polyester. Be it printed flags, patka, batches, stickers, woven non woven caps, mask, hand bands, calendar, sticker sheet, general voter slip, mobile sticker, badges, Nagina badges, watch, Umbrella, scarf, T-shirt collar and sarees are environment friendly.
The price of the all article depends on its size. The paper and cotton flag are priced between Rs 3 and Rs 40 per piece. Price of scarfs and patka made of satin and cotton range between Rs 20 and Rs 40 each. The party metal batches are being sold for Rs 5 each. Owner of Sheela Ad-makers, Arera Colony, near BJP Office, Ajay Agrawal told Free Press, “The banners, stickers, bunting, flags etc all are made of fabric and paper. Earlier, these articles were made in bulk using plastic as people accustomed of it. Now, paper and fabric are used as they are non- hazardous to environment.
Thus by selling non-plastic material we are promoting eco-friendly products, said Agrawal, adding that people have become conscious and are also discouraging use of plastic articles. Similarly, owner of Agrawal Bandhu Shop, Malviya Nagar, Amit Agrawal said “We follow the directions, issued by election commission. We have all eco-friendly campaign materials barring few of them. If the commission bans the plastic-made material completely, we won’t use them. If the customers demands non-plastic campaign materials, we will give the same, he added.
No doubt, the eco-friendly material 25-30 % costlier but it is good for our environment, said Agrawal added. Owner of Zain enterprise, Malviya Nagar, Mhd. Fazil said, “We have all eco-friendly articles from flags to hand bands. Of course, its cost is just the double but what to say, we have to follow the direction of the election commission.”
ECI
The Election Commission of India in its Model Code of Conduct say, “The political parties and candidates should try to avoid the use of plastic/polythene for preparation of posters, banners etc. in the interest of environmental protection.” Clearly, the ECI has not banned use of plastic but only said ‘political parties and candidates should avoid….”.
