405 fined in Municipal Corporation of Gurugram drive against single-use plastic in two weeks

GURUGRAM: MCG has issued 405 challans worth Rs 3.7 lakh against the use of single-use plastic (SUP) since the ban was imposed. Of the Rs 3.7 lakh penalty, MCG has recovered the penalties amounting to Rs 2.3 lakh and seized 980 kg of banned plastic in the last two weeks from the city.
“We have been holding meetings with the market associations, traders, fruit and vegetable vendors and residents to make them aware about the banned single-use plastic items. The ban has been implemented and people will have to follow it. Otherwise challans will be issued for the violation,” said Jaideep Kumar, additional commissioner of MCG.
The corporation on Thursday also launched plastic-free clean Gurgaon campaign, under which an awareness campaign will be carried out targeting schools, societies and markets. As part of the campaign, a booklet with banned single-use plastic items and their alternatives was launched. The MCG officials said that awareness in schools will be raised through short videos and films launched on Thursday.
“People should plant trees on their birthdays and anniversaries. MCG will soon launch an app on which residents will be able to upload the photo of a sapling planted by them and a photo of the same plant after one year. The residents who maintain the saplings planted by them will then be awarded for it. People should adopt methods to curb the use of plastic and the banned items of single-use plastic should not be used,” Mayor Madhu Azad said.
The list of banned items, include earbuds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene (Thermocol) for decoration, plastic plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straw, trays, wrapping or packing items around sweet boxes, invitation cards, cigarette packets, plastic or PVC banners less than 100 micron and stirrers. For violating the ban, the defaulters will have to pay a fine with the lower limit of Rs 500 and upper limit of Rs 25,000 depending on the weight of the plastic.