Transition Hit
Abdul Wahid is the owner of Fatma Plastic, a shop at Azad Market of New Delhi and he deals with foam. His story describes the situation well. "I got to know about the new regulations when the company supplying me with the chemicals brought a form and advised me to submit a proposal for the switchover. I was caught unaware, ' he recollects. Owner of a small-scale firm with a turnover of about Rs 12 lakh, the nuances of Montreal Protocol were not his cup of tea. He filled up the form. After one and half years the new machine arrived from Italy and the chemicals from Mumbai.
Sadly, he couldn't use them. The old mould did not fit in the new machine and the quality of chemicals was not good. He called up the Mumbai distributors but to no avail. He ended up spending Rs 2 lakh from his pocket because the cost of extra equipment like compressors, chillers and heaters had not been included in the assistance he had got. He has reverted to his earlier process of manual production and uses the old chemicals. "Do I have any option?' asks Abdul Wahid.
The government agencies could have told Abdul that the Montreal Protocol's multilateral fund would have compensated him for any incremental capital costs as well as increments in operational costs for two years, besides the cost of technology transferred.
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