Environment and Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray recently relaunched a drive against single-use plastic. Over a period of 10 days, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has seized 2.2 thousand kgs of plastic and collected ₹29 lakhs from the same. As per the data provided by the BMC, between March 1 and March 9, it made 29,216 visits to random shops to catch offenders. Civic officials seized a total of 2,253.435 kg banned plastic and collected fines of ₹29,20,000. A fine of ₹5,000 was imposed on the shopkeepers using single-use plastic.
According to the BMC, between June 2018 and 2019, it had seized around 60,000 kgs plastic worth ₹3.39 crore. Of this, 28,000 kgs were seized in the first four months, while 32,000 kgs were seized in the following eight months.
Aaditya Thackeray had announced that the authorities are planning to make the city plastic-free by May 1, 2020, i.e. on the occasion of Maharashtra Day.
Also Read: BMC relaunches drive to Make Mumbai plastic-free
In the past few weeks, there has been a fresh vigour at BMC to reduce the dependency on plastic. Officials are trying to adopt more environment-friendly ways. The team has proposed to provide eco-friendly plastic containers to 3,741 women fishmongers as these eco-friendly containers last long and can carry up to 20 kgs of fish.
Another such drive was recently announced where the use of eco-friendly concrete was promoted for the Coastal Road Project. This concrete mixture uses less cement and thus is less harmful to the flora and fauna in the nearby areas.
Also Read: Metro One starts issuing paper QR tickets; will fully replace plastic tokens by March
The state government had banned plastic earlier in 2018 wherein the move later lost momentum as people started using it again. Aaditya Thackeray stated that a fine between ₹5,000 and ₹25,000 will be imposed on the defaulters.
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