Wednesday, 17 August 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) has collected a penalty of over Rs two lakh from small shopkeepers and vendors for using banned plastic products. It will soon start imposing penalties for the violation on big shopkeepers and wholesalers across the city too.
The chief municipal health officer Dr Avinash Khanna said that MCD had started raising awareness among locals against the usage of prohibited materials like single-use plastics, polystyrene and styrofoam among others for about two months before it started imposing penalties. As a part of MCD’s initiative for the phased elimination of these products, sanitation teams specially went among the vendors and small shopkeepers of the city to raise awareness, said Khanna. A total of 414 kilogrammes of prohibited plastic products has been seized from July 1 to August 12 as per the data given by the corporation. The MCD confiscated 296 kilogrammes of banned plastic products penalising 837 people in July and 118 kilogrammes plastic products in August penalising 61 people.
The corporation has collected a sum of Rs 2,32,000 by charging penalties since July, as per the data. Khanna said that reduction of the usage of single-use plastics has been a main concern and considering their consumption is higher among vendors and small shopkeepers, MCD targeted them first. He said that the corporation will soon start penalising big shopkeepers heavily unlike small shopkeepers for the procurement and usage of banned plastic products. Khanna further said that the corporation is also planning to take action against the eateries using banned materials for packaging and manufacturers and suppliers of such prohibited materials in the city. He also added that consumers will also be fined for using these banned products with a minimum amount of Rs 100. He appealed to the locals to avoid the usage of these banned products and register a complaint in the corporation about any violations related to the plastic ban.
