BHUBANESWAR: After a gap of eight months, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday resumed enforcement of the ban on single-use plastic. Three teams have been formed to start awareness drives and enforcement activities.
Owing to the pandemic, the squads had to be diverted to work related to enforcing the Covid-19 rules. But with a steady decline in fresh cases over the past few days, the BMC has reconstituted the squads for the enforcement of the plastic ban.
The first day of the resumption of the enforcement activities was meant for creating awareness. The public address system was used to make people aware of the ill-effects of using plastic and alert them to the possibility of raids by the civic body so that the traders phase out single-use polythene carry-bags if they had been using the same during the pandemic.
“Since no enforcement drive could be carried out for eight months owing to the pandemic, we wanted the first day of its resumption to serve as a reminder to people of the government ban on plastic, and inspections to be carried out for the same. Plastic carry-bags of less than 50 micron thickness will be seized and a penalty will be imposed on those using it. Big and small-time traders, shopkeepers and vendors will be asked to substitute plastic with other eco-friendly alternatives,” BMC deputy commissioner Suvendu Sahu said.
The BMC officials said there was no plastic ban enforcement between March and October. A total fine of Rs 15 lakh had been collected till February. The civic body had started slapping fines on violators after the government decided to ban single-use plastic in 2018.
Days before the lockdown in March, the BMC had launched the second leg of polythene-free city drive at Bapuji Nagar here. It had, along with a bank, distributed about 5,000 cotton bags as part of the initiative.
After January 1 this year, when the plastic enforcement drive was intensified, the BMC had decided to repeat it in April in a bid to promote eco-friendly carry-bags and to dissuade people from using plastic ones. But before the drive could be carried out, Covid raised its ugly head. Till February, the BMC had seized 10 metric tonne of plastic carry-bags.