The Koparkhairane ward officers seized 2000 kg of banned plastic from a shop in the APMC market after it found banned plastic was being sold along the footpath in its ward. The civic official tracked down the source of the banned plastic and finally reached the shop. In the last one week, the civic body seized around 4000 kg banned plastic across the city.
While inspecting the cleanliness in Koparkhairane ward on Thursday, Additional Commissioner Dr. Sujata Dhole, Deputy Municipal Commissioner Babasaheb Rajale and assistant commissioner of Koparkhairane Divisional ward Ashok Madhavi found that the banned plastic bags were being sold along the footpath.
Acting on that, they started tracking down where the plastic bags came from. The official tracked down a shop in Koparkhairane, from whom the hawker had taken the plastic bags. After taking action against the shopkeeper, they tracked the wholesaler L N Trading Company in APMC market in Turbhe and seized 2000 kg banned plastic. The civic body also collected Rs 15,000 fines from the shop. This was one of the biggest seizures of banned plastic this year so far.
The civic chief Abhijit Bangar had warned action against the sell and use of banned plastic bags in the city. Last week, during a special drive, the civic body took action against a total of 46 shops in Vashi, Sanpada, and Koparkhairane on Saturday. The civic body collected a total of Rs 2.4 lakh and seized banned 902 kg plastic from shops.
In January, the Vashi ward has taken action against 45 violators and collected over Rs 2.5 lakh fines from them. They also seized 45 kgs of plastic from them.
During the lockdown, action against banned plastic was slowed down as there was hardly any activity. However, eying on number one rank in cleanliness survey, the civic body is stressing on the action.
In 2018, in Maharashtra, the government had imposed a ban on manufacturing, use, sale, distribution, and storage of plastic materials that included one-time-use bags, spoons, and plates, among others.
The use of single-use plastic bags below 50 microns was already banned in 2006 and in 2018, the state government banned all kinds of single-use plastics and thermocol. Following this, the civic body had formed eight committees at the ward level.
