BMC likens plastic bags to contraband

BMC likens plastic bags to contraband
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

August 7: Deputy municipal commissioner (DMC) Chandrashekhar Rokde today outlined the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) agenda against plastic bags and likened plastic to contraband.

``Anyone found posessing bags thinner than 20 microns after August 15 will be fined Rs 2,000,'' Rokde told Newsline. Manufacturers invite the harshest penalty -- fines up to Rs one lakh and imprisonment up to five months.

Rokde asserted the BMC had ensured there were no loopholes in its notification. ``We have put three BMC departments -- licensing and shops and establishments and nuisance detectors -- on the job,'' he said.

Explaining how the BMC would simultaneously coordinate the poster campaign and an audio-visual campaign, besides handling dozens of phone calls, he said the BMC will initially target distributors and vendors of the bags. ``The users are generally small traders and vegetable vendors,'' said Rokde. It will simultaneously target the distributors who deliver the bags to these vendors. The BMC Act's Section 390 and 394, which deal with licensing, have since been modified to make distribution and use of the bags liable for a fine of Rs 2,000. Repeat offences could result in cancellation of their licences.

The police department was also being roped in to make possession of the thin bags punishable with arrest.

Lastly, the BMC will target citizens who accept the carrybags. ``Nuisance detectors will park their vehicles outside markets, fining citizens carrying thin bags,'' he said. Enforcement of these provisions would not be a problem, Rokde said, since nuisance detectors had a tremendous incentive. The BMC has offered them 25 per cent of the monthly fines collected. ``It's almost like Kaun Banega Crorepati,'' he grinned.

Manufacture of the bags in the city would have to cease forthwith, Rokde said, and even imports from other regions would be banned. Octroi check nakas have been asked to look out for imports of plastic bags.

BMC officials admit that banning the bags in the city would result in their proliferation in other `soft areas' like Gujarat. M R Shah, BMC's former chief engineer (solid waste management) recalls how a plastic dealer shifted his entire stock of plastic bags worth Rs 20 lakh the day after BMC announced the ban.

Meanwhile, the corporation is also reaching out to small vendors advising them against the harmful effects of the bags. ``It's a myth that the thin bags are cheap, vendors end up paying over Rs 10,000 for them annually,'' says BMC official Subhash Dalvi. ``We are advising them to put this into fixed deposits for their children.''

On Tuesday evening, BMC is to organise an awareness meeting chaired by Commissioner V Ranganathan, involving NGOs and state government officials.