Corporators moot study trip to Sikkim

Mumbai: While its own methods have failed to execute a plastic ban effectively in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) corporators want to tour Sikkim to study its plastic ban implementation. They have demanded that the civic body should organise a study tour of Sikkim to learn more about the tiny state’s experiment with the plastic ban.

Suvarna Karanje, the chairperson of the civic law committee, has demanded that a study tour of all the members of the law committee to Sikkim should be arranged from municipal funds.

In her letter, Ms Karanje has said, “Sikkim is known as one of the most beautiful and clean cities in the country. It has implemented 100 per cent plastic ban in the city and its urban management is also very good. To keep the city clean, various policies have been implemented there with the help of cleanliness tax revenues collected by the licence
department.”

The expenses for the study tour should be borne from municipal commissioner’s voluntary funds and the tour should be organised by the civic liaison officer, she added.

Sikkim, which in 1998 became the first Indian state to ban disposable plastic bags, is also among the first to target single-use plastic bottles. In 2016, Sikkim took two major decisions. It banned the use of packaged drinking water in government offices and government events. Seco-ndly, it banned the use of Styrofoam and thermocol disposable plates and cutlery.

Some of the corporators have expressed their opposition to using public funds for the exercise. “Instead of making the tour with the help of municipal funds, corporators should spend from their own pockets to go to Sikkim,” said Samajwadi Party leader Rais Shaikh.