HYDERABAD: In a bid to tackle the increasing amount of plastic dumped around Charminar, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is planning to take a call on its usage, in a review meeting scheduled to be held on Saturday. GHMC Central Zonal Commissioner Musharraf Faruqui, who is also in-charge of Charminar Pedestrianisation Project (CPP), told Express that a meeting with stakeholders was scheduled for Saturday and that they were going to take a call on the use of plastic that was increasing due to the presence of hundreds of vendors in the CPP area.
These vendors, selling variously assertable ranging from bangles to bags, mostly use plastic as a method of packaging. At any point of the day, if one visits Charminar, he/she is bound to be greeted by plastic lying on the pavement. The situation becomes worse during the monsoon when the plastic gets dragged around with the rainwater and collects near the drain outlet, creating a small dumping space.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the country would phase out single-use plastics by 2022. He had said that the move was necessary not just for the benefit of the environment, but also for aquatic life which was getting affected by plastic. The vendors, who are supposed to be relocated to the proposed Salar Jung pedestrian bridge, seem to be increasing with every passing day. When the police come for inspection, they pack away their belongings and leave, only to return when the police leave.
A police official said that it was the responsibility of the municipal administration to ensure that the issue of vendors is taken care of. The vendors are also violating previous GHMC chief Dana Kishore’s order that no vendor should be present around a 50-m radius of Charminar.