COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) has seized around 12 tonnes of banned plastic items and collected around Rs 25 lakh as fine from shopkeepers in 2023. However, social activists said this was not enough and more needs to be done to ensure the ban on single-use plastics. On January1, 2019, the state banned use of 14 plastic items including single-use bags and covers, but their use has been continuing. Traders cite the lack of alternative packing material and the high cost of biodegradable alternatives.
A CCMC official told TNIE, “A total of 14,151 shops were raided last year and a total of 10,957 kg of banned single-use plastic items were seized. A fine amount of Rs 24,57,500 has been collected from the violators. Out of the five zones in the city, the Central Zone collected the highest amount of fine of Rs 3.85 lakh and the East Zone collected the lowest with Rs 98,300.”
However, social activists demanded the officials to impose hefty fines and initiate criminal proceedings against those using the plastic items. They alleged that CCMC is taking action against small traders and ignored the big fish.
CCMC Commissioner M Sivaguru Prabakaran told TNIE, “We have been constantly conducting surprise inspections over the banned plastic items in the city. Currently, we are collecting the fine amount based on the state government’s guidelines, so we don’t have any plans to increase them now.
Also, in order to reduce the curb the usage of banned plastic items, we have to identify its source and have deployed teams to monitor the incoming of those items into the city.” On Tuesday, the CCMC raided a total of 621 shops in which the officials seized 188 Kg of banned plastics and imposed a fine of Rs 1,28,100 against the violators.