The drive against banned plastic in Mumbai will be put on hold, due to the unavailabilty of civic officials as they have been called for election duty. However, they are expected to resume work after the Lok Sabha elections.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had formed a team of 300 members as blue squad to visit shops and check for banned plastic. These officials were from BMC's shops and establishments, license and market departments.
According to senior official, they have stopped doing rounds to ensure banned plastic items are not used, as they do not have enough staff to continue. "Some of the staff members from all three departments have to go for election duty, while the remaining have to be present in office for day-to-day work," said the official. He added that if they continue their drive for plastic ban, it will affect daily functioning of all these three departments.
The official from the general administration department of BMC said that around 11,000 staffs will go to election duty. "The collector office has sent letters to each ward and departments separately and arrange staffs. We have no other option, but to send them," said the official.
Since plastic ban came into affect, the blue squad visited over six lakh shops across the city and collected fine of over Rs 2.5 crore. It has also seized over 51,000 kgs banned plastic. First time violator will be fined Rs 5000.
Subsequently, second and third time violators will be fined Rs 10,000 and Rs 25,000 respectively. There is also provision of jail for repeat offenders. "We have seized more than ninetimes banned plastic in just four months which shows the intensity of implementation," said the official.
The Blue Squad
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had formed a team of 300 members as blue squad to visit shops and check for banned plastic. These officials were from BMC’s shops and establishments, license and market departments.
