Bowing to pressure from the manufacturers, the government published a notice allowing thicker bags in Nepal Gazette on April 1.
According to Mahendra Man Gurung, Joint Secretary at Ministry of Science Technology and Environment (MoSTE), manufacturers would be allowed to produce and sell plastic bags above 40 micron thick.Earlier, the ministry had decided to ban all kinds of plastic bags in the valley starting April 14.
"The decision had to be changed acknowledging the need of plastic bags in disposing garbage and hospital waste products," said Gurung.
On August 25, 2014, Environment Protection Committee (EPC) of the Parliament ordered the government to impose a strict ban on the use and distribution of plastic bags from April 14, 2015.
In its previous attempts, government had amended the Plastic Bags Regulation and Control Directives, 2011, with an aim to enforce a ban on the production, import, storage, selling and use of plastic bags with thickness below 30 micron.
"A week long awareness program informing about our campaign has kicked off. Ten different teams led by both ministry and department officials including media persons have been deployed to educate people about our effort and its advantage to both human and the environment we live in," said Gurung.
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