In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, one weak link evident is the continued habit of spitting in public places, undermining efforts to curb the spread of the disease. When we took out this petition on 16th March, there was no mention of ‘No spitting’ in most checklists across the country. Our repeated tweets have brought in some attention including this petition getting covered on FM radio by 95 Mirchi Bengaluru. In Karnataka, posters against spitting were released along with an announcement. But the wins are small and we need to push this into the national spotlight for critical action, and urgently.

With your support in signing and sharing this petition, we hope this could be a turning point for spitting in India, a habit that has been around for generations. It is the right time to rid the country of this habit, now when the fear of the entire nation is palpable. This may be our only chance to get India to stop spitting. Our fight has just begun, and we value your support. Thank you for signing, sharing and supporting this cause.

The headline of this campaign is: Free paper bags will destroy the planet, Mandate carrying own bags or paying for them. It was sparked by a recent court ruling against a retailer instructing them to provide free paper bags. It was essentially a tussle between retailer and consumer on who should pay the price of the bag. However, the issue began to spin out of control, with a worrying wave of countrywide messages among consumers with reminders to demand their free bags when they next went shopping!

​

It was a matter of great concern that many missed the fact that free paper bags means more consumption and more trees cut. In the tussle between retailers and consumers, the biggest casualty would be the planet.

​

Wishing to build perspective on this issue, Beautiful Bengaluru took out a petition in April 2019. It is getting good support, but we are waiting for a wider reach before taking it forward.

If you agree that free paper bags are not the way forward because of the impact on our environment, please do lend your support to this petition by signing and sharing it.

In October 2018, Beautiful Bengaluru petitioned the authorities for legislation to prevent forced bottled water sales at mega-events given the huge, needless waste generated. Backed by over 2000 city residents, our petition was sparked by mindless plastic waste at the Bryan Adams music concert. Residents were not permitted to carry in their own water and charged Rs100 per litre for bottled water. What was worse, each litre resulted in wastage of two 500ml bottles as well as two 500ml paper cups. Our demand was that visitors to any event should be permitted to carry their own water (as many do today, to reduce their waste footprint) or else have free water available with zero waste service. Bottled water as the only option at inflated prices was not okay! We were delighted to see all our asks met through the revised ‘Events Waste Management Notification’ issued by BBMP in March 2019. This mandates that organisers should permit own water to be carried, and if not, provide free waste with no waste footprint. Mineral water if sold, must be at MRP, and cannot be the only water available.

​

You can view the details of the petition below, as well as some comments from supporters.