In a much-needed initiative, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is planning to issue a fresh ban on the use of plastic bags across the city.
A draft proposal will be sent to the state government for approval, said the officials.
The use of non-biodegradable plastic bags was banned by the MCG in 2015, but its enforcement remained poor. The National Green Tribunal (NGT), in August last year, had issued an interim ban on the use of plastic bags thinner than 50 micron in Delhi, imposing a fine of Rs 5,000 against violators.
On similar lines, a ban on plastic was enforced by the Uttar Pradesh government in July 2017 across all cities.
MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav and Mayor Madhu Azad said they were working on making the Millennium City plastic free. They were responding to complaints by the councillors about the city’s growing plastic menace during the fifth house meeting of the MCG at John Hall in Civil Line.
The officials agreed that a top-down approach was needed to stop the use of plastic. A crackdown on the manufacturers of low-grade polythene was on the cards, said the officials. “We will issue hefty challans on wholesalers and distributors of polythene,” Yadav said.
Understanding the fact that penalising individual violators was not an effective option and the source of the problem needed to be dealt with, the House decided that the MCG would come down heavily on manufacturers of low-grade polythene.
“A drive against these manufacturers would be launched soon,” Yadav added. The MCG would work keeping in mind the October 2, 2019 deadline of the Centre’s Swacch Bharat initiative.
