TIRUCHY: Officials of the corporation conducted inspection at 497 shops across the city on Tuesday and seized about 502 kg of banned plastic bags. The move sent a strong message to merchants and boards propped up in front of shops, including meat outlets, on Wednesday requesting customers to come with their own bags for shopping.
"Our team conducted inspections in shops in all the five zones and collected a fine of Rs 1.42 lakh from merchants on Tuesday," a senior official said. In May, mayor Mu Anbalagan conducted a meeting with merchants and told them to stop using banned plastic bags. Though the mayor had given them an ultimatum and announced that the corporation will start taking action from June 1, officials said the corporation allotted some more time for merchants as it received so many requests from them.
"We already gave the merchants ample time and we will continue these inspections in more places in the coming days," said Anbalagan. Sources said the mayor has directed senior officials to ensure that inspections are conducted regularly. Officials said the ongoing inspection will compel merchants to stop stocking up on plastic bags.
"We can levy a fine from Rs 500 to Rs 2 lakh, depending on the quantity of seized plastic products. Usually, a fine of Rs 1 lakh or more is levied when we seize a huge quantity of plastic bags from godowns. It is a difficult task to identify such buildings keeping huge quantities of banned plastics. But, we are trying our best to find such major suppliers," a senior official said.
Though the move created difficulties for merchants, many of them expressed the hope that the continuing inspection would compel customers to start bringing their own bags. "We are packing the meat with banana leaf and paper for customers who are coming without bags. We also request them to come with bags next time. We have put a board in front of shops about the ban of plastic bags. We hope more customers start coming with bags," said Jaffar, who runs a meat shop in Puthur.