VIJAYAWADA: Five months after a complete ban was imposed on single-use plastics in the city, the public health department officials of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) are still recovering the banned plastics during their raids. Taking a serious note of the matter, the civic body has decided to cancel the trade licences of individuals or firms who are still circulating the banned items even after being penalised by the authorities.
During a standing committee meeting held recently, a resolution was passed by the civic body to impose a penalty of Rs 50,000 on commercial enterprises whose annual turnover crossed `40 lakh, if found using single-use plastics. If caught red-handed for the second time they would be fined `1 lakh and if they repeat the offence for the third time, their trade licence will be cancelled.
The civic body has seized more than 10 tonnes of plastic and collected `17 lakh as penalty from traders since the implementation of the plastic ban in June.“Though the public health department officials and other enforcement teams are carrying out surprise checks at wholesale and ready made clothing stores, a few of them are still circulating the banned plastics. Therefore we have decided to take action against those who are frequently violating the ban,’’ Municipal Commissioner V Prasanna Venkatesh told TNIE.
If we find a trader still circulating the banned plastics from his or her store even after being penalised by the authorities, the individual’s trade licence will be cancelled on the spot, he added
The civic body chief added that bankers have shown interest in funding self help groups (SHGs) by granting them MSME loans for manufacturing cloth and jute bags as alternatives to plastics. In this regard, the industries department should also come forward and extend their support for the noble cause.
On being questioned whether milk packets also fall under the category of banned goods, the commissioner said that a meeting will be held with the milk producers in the city and sought them to extend their support to the noble cause by phasing out plastic covers and switching to tetra packets.
The other idea is to introduce milk vending machines at selected spots and supply the milk by giving them a discount on the actual price in order to change the mindset of the consumers so that the ban can be effectively implemented, civic body chief V Prasanna Venkatesh concluded.