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MCG to enforce Haryana Garbage Control Act to support campaign to ban single-use plastic
Gurugram As the Central government begins its campaign against single-use plastic from Wednesday, the Gurugram administration has decided to implement, strictly,
Gurugram As the Central government begins its campaign against single-use plastic from Wednesday, the Gurugram administration has decided to implement, strictly, the provisions of Haryana Non-Biodegradable Garbage (Control) Act, 1998, six years after it was last invoked by the government to prohibit the use of single-use plastic in the state.
“In 2013, a notification was issued by the Urban Local Bodies department under the Haryana Non-Biodegradable Garbage (Control) Act, 1998, which prohibited single-use plastic. The MCG, in the past, has taken action against those who have violated the Act. Now that it has become a national call, we will be vigilant in enforcing the Act and active in sensitising people about the harmful impact of single-use plastic,” said Amit Khatri, deputy commissioner of Gurugram, who took additional charge of MCG this year.
The Haryana Non-Biodegradable Garbage (Control) Act, 1998, bans manufacture, sale, distribution, stocking and transportation of plastic bags and articles, such as plates, cups and tumblers, spoons, forks and straws made of virgin or recycled plastic.
The minimum penalty under the Act is ₹500 for up to 100 grams of plastic bags and ₹25,000, for 10 kilograms or more.
As per the data shared by the MCG, it has, since January, issued more than 3,000 challans to shop owners, vendors and those who had stocked plastic for retail and wholesale use. Over ₹37 lakh has been collected in fines by the MCG until now. However, they failed to provide challan data for the period of 2013 to June 2018.
“The drive against plastic use gathered force after 2016, when plastic waste management (PWM) rules came into the picture. Since then, we have been actively issuing challans for PWM violation, open garbage burning, illegal waste dumping, littering, and bulk waste generators,” said Inderjit Kulharia, the deputy commissioner of MCG.
The district administration will be conducting awareness campaigns on the ill-effects of single-use plastic from October 3-27. On the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday on Wednesday, various programmes will be conducted by the administration at the district, block and panchayat levels.
YS Gupta, joint commissioner MCG, said, “Implementing an Act takes time, but the MCG has been proactively working on preventing plastic use. Our squads are already operational in different wards.”
Gupta said that they have received permission to send excessive plastic from the city to the waste-to-energy plant in Delhi. “In a meeting held with the officials of the NCR on Monday, it was discussed that Gurugram can send its excessive plastic waste to a waste-to-energy plant in Okhla,” said Gupta.
