600kg plastic gathered, Rs 3.35 lakh collected in fines

Mumbai: On the second day of the plastic ban the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corpor-ation (BMC) collected nearly 600 kg of banned plastic and collected fines amounting to Rs 3.35 lakh from across the city. Action against the offenders for using banned plastic items will be intensified from Monday, said civic officials.

According to civic officials, BMC’s teams of inspectors visited 867 establishments, of which banned plastic was found in 72 shops. The civic officials seized 591.67 kg of banned plastic and collected a fine of Rs 3.35 lakh from offenders. As five shops refused to pay fines, notices have been issued to them.

“The best thing is that less than 10 per cent shops were found to be using products under the plastic ban. Most have complied with the ban. It was heartening to see that many shops have completely moved to plastic alternatives. Our objective isn’t fining, it’s raising awareness,” said Nidhi Choudhari, deputy municipal commissioner (special).

The action would be intensified more from Monday. Our team of inspectors would be visiting shops, malls, markets, hawkers, vendors to crack a whip on banned plastic, said a senior civic official.

However, a majority of shopkeepers are still clueless about the implementation of the plastic ban. Sanjay Vichare, a shopkeeper from Bhandup, said, “The BMC has not yet given shopkeepers a clear idea of what is being banned and what is not. I have cleared my shop of all plastic bags and banned cutlery items. But, we have no clue if we have overlooked anything. Whate-ver information we have gathered is only from social media. So, there are doubts about the authenticity of the posts.”

The BMC has formed a team of 249 inspectors from three departments – market, licence and shops and establishments – to take action against ban-ned plastic in the city. These officials have been given jackets stating spec-ifically that they belong to the plastic ban squad.