Siliguri, April 21: Banned plastic products keep trickling in from adjoining Nepal even as the West Bengal Pollution Control Board’s is trying hard to pull the plug on the trade.

The reason: The customs department is yet to take any action on the matter.

At a meeting, attended by the North Bengal Plastic Federation and WBPCB officials, it was decided that the customs department would try to stop the entry of banned products from Nepal.

Customs officials on the Indo-Nepal border, however, told The Telegraph that they were unaware of any such “official” intimation.

“We are not aware of any such instructions. Plastic bags made in Nepal enters India even today,” said superintendent of customs at Naxalbari Indo-Nepal border P.C. Sarkar.

The pollution control board has decided to issue closure notices to 20 plastic producing units of north Bengal if they do not abide by the Environment Protection Act, 1986. These units are allegedly processing plastic bags, which are less than 20 microns in thickness.

The Joint Action Committee of Industrial Associations of North Bengal has alleged “discrimination” on part of the WBPCB and demanded that the inflow of the plastic bags from Nepal be stopped immediately.

“Plastic bags less than 20 microns in thickness are being imported from Nepal under a SAARC agreement. We are losing out as the commerce department does not act in tune with the rules set by the environment department. We took up the matter with the WBPCB but to no avail,” said Surajit Paul, general secretary of Siliguri Industries Association (SIA) and North Bengal Plastic Federation.

The WBPCB has said that the customs department had been asked not to allow the import of such plastic bags through the Indo-Nepal border.

Paul, however, admitted that 10 per cent of the plastic industries were involved in producing plastics of the banned type.