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Crackdown on plastic bags
With malls and shops turning a blind eye to the diktats of GHMC in banning plastic bags below 40 microns in thickness, the civic body launched a...
With malls and shops turning a blind eye to the diktats of GHMC in banning plastic bags below 40 microns in thickness, the civic body launched a surprise raid on Friday
After 25 months and many warnings later, the implementation of banning plastic bags below 40 microns in thickness has fallen on deaf ears. It was in June, 2011 that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) passed a ruling banning the use.
GHMC officials led by L Vandana Kumar, Additional Commissioner, Health and Sanitation swung into action on Friday and conducted raids on many shops and malls. Some of the biggest malls and shops in the city including Shoppers Stop, Kalanikethan, Mebaz, Neeru’s and Mother’s Care were slapped with penalty.
Big and mighty raided
In Shoppers Stop, 700 plastic bags were seized and the mall was slapped with a Rs 50,000 penalty. In Kalanikethan officials seized 150 plastic bags and a penalty of Rs 25,000 was slapped. 900 plastic bags were seized in Mebaz and fined them to the tune of Rs 25,000. Neeru’s and Mother’s Care were also raided and 900 and 1000 plastic bags seized. These shops failed to come up with the required sum, hence their shops were seized by the officials.
In the month of June this year, M T Krishna Babu, Commissioner, GHMC conducted a meeting and asked all shops under GHMC limits to voluntarily come forward with initiatives to prevent and discourage the use of plastic bags amongst the public. Representatives of Reliance Fresh Limited, Shoppers Stop, Big Bazaar, Food World, Ratnadeep Super Market, Rainbow Industries, Chintamani Plastic Industries, Balaji Grand Bazaar, Durga Plastics, Popular Plastics and officials from FAPCCI attended the meeting.
In a bid to dissuade customers’ malls started charging Rs 3 to Rs 12 for plastic bags depending on the size but the move has not been appreciated by the civic authorities and environmental activists. Ravi an activist said, “In the garb of dissuading people, malls started making money by selling plastic bags with their brand name and logo.”
