Chandigarh MC launches ‘Har gadi bin, har gadi bag’ to check littering, plastic bag use

Car dealers told to provide a dustbin and a shopping bag at the time of sale of new car and at the time of servicing; Chandigarh RLA to also make them compulsory for vehicle registration

The Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) has launched the “Har gadi bin, har gadi bag” campaign to sensitise citizens about littering and ban on single-use plastic.

Chandigarh MC has also set up a cloth bag outlet, manned by self-help groups in Sector 26, to promote the use of cloth/jute bags and discourage use of single-use plastic. (HT Photo)

MC commissioner Anindita Mitra said if every citizen kept a shopping bag in their car, plastic bags could be completely eliminated from market areas. “If every car has a dustbin and citizens use it to put their thrash, littering can be greatly reduced,” she added.

The commissioner said as part of the plan, MC and RLA had tied up with all car dealers to provide customers with a dustbin and a shopping bag at the time of sale of new car and at the time of servicing.

The RLA will also make it compulsory for citizens applying for registration to install dustbins and keep cloth/jute shopping bags in their vehicles, she said, adding that this was an important step as Chandigarh had the highest vehicular density in the country at 878 registered vehicles per 1,000 people.

The commissioner said MC had also started a campaign “Selfie with shopping bag and selfie with bottle”, to reduce the use of plastic water bottles, wherein citizens can tag the MC social media handles.

She said MC had also set up a cloth bag outlet, manned by self-help groups in Sector 26, to promote the use of cloth/jute bags and discourage use of single-use plastic.

Besides, 935 challans of littering and 721 challans of use of banned plastic have been issued in the past six months.