Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Sept 5: The state government has banned Chinese string (manja) and other synthetic (non-biodegradable) strings used for flying kites.
Chinese manja is a nylon string coated with finely crushed glass and thus pose grave threat to lives of human beings as well as birds like vultures, kites, owls and crows.
“The government has banned the retail sale of Chinese manja and other synthetic threads coated with glass and other harmful substances in the state. We have taken the decision in the wake of a recent accident in Cuttack wherein a girl child was killed,” home department special secretary Lalit Das told Orissa POST Monday.
The ban entails that no shopkeeper, vendor, wholesaler, retailer, trader, hawker or salesperson can procure, stock, sell or use Chinese manja in the state.
The government has asked the director general of police (DGP) and twin city police commissioner to take necessary steps to implement the ban, he said.
The police officials would conduct surprise raids at shops and outlets to check the sale of the product, sources said. Action would be taken as per law if anybody is found violating the order, they added.
Earlier, the Cuttack district administration had banned the sale and use of Chinese manja in the district.
In January this year, a six-year-old girl had died after a glass-coated manja thread slit her throat while she was travelling with her parents on a motorcycle on national highway-5 near Telengapentha under Cuttack Sadar police limits. The deceased’s father too was injured in the incident and is undergoing treatment.
Cuttack had witnessed similar cases earlier too. Satyaranjan Behera (25) had died in a similar incident while travelling on a two-wheeler near Khannagar in 2015.
