E-Paper
Ban on polybags: Lack of staff delays enforcement in Jalandhar
The municipal corporation will enforce the ban on plastic bags and thermocol items in the city next week as its field staff is busy in the survey of 18,500 aspirants who have submitted applications under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) with the civic body.
The municipal corporation will enforce the ban on plastic bags and thermocol items in the city next week as its field staff is busy in the survey of 18,500 aspirants who have submitted applications under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) with the civic body.
As many as 100 workers of various branches of the civic body are visiting houses of the applicants in the 60 wards of the city for verification of the information, given by them in the application forms.
Further, the corporation has also itself asked the traders and manufacturers involved in such business to follow the rules themselves for avoiding the penalty. However, a team of officials on Friday visited a few markets and asked dhaba and hotel owners, vendors, shopkeepers to go by the order of the government and not to use polythene carry bags. The team also reportedly used the sound system to make them aware but of ban, but did not issue any challans.
Meanwhile, shopkeepers, business establishments and vendors continue to use polythene carry bags pleading they have no substitute for the bags so far. Kishan Sharma, MC’s assistant medical officer (AMO), said that workers were busy in the survey started under the PMAY and it has not any additional staff. He said that the civic body would start issuing challans after enforcement teams were set up. On the other hand, representatives of the Plastic Manufacturers and Traders Association staged a dharna in the Bansawala Bajar and raised slogans against the government.
The association’s spokesperson and one of plastic manufacturers Manmohan Singh said that the government should roll back its decision, otherwise they would be forced to launch an agitation. The order banning the use of polythene carry bags was issued by the state government on February 18 and it has come into effect from April 1 in the state.
According to the notification issued by the state government, production, distribution, purchase, sale and recycling of plastic bags in all the municipal corporations, municipal councils and nagar panchayats stands banned. The government had claimed that the ban would pave the way for a strong foundation of the Swachh Bharat campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
