South India is progressively working towards the environment! After making it mandatory for people to plant trees to get their home registered in a Kerala town, Tamil Nadu has taken a step ahead towards eliminating plastic pollution, recently.
The Market Management Committee (MMC) in Chennai seized 1.5 tonnes of banned plastic material from the Koyambedu wholesale market complex. The corporation has planned to levy a penalty on the shop owner who has violated the rules of plastic ban in the city.
Corporation officials have sealed the shop and it will be locked until the evaluation of seized material is completed.
“We will impose a fine of Rs 25,000 on him for storing and supplying banned materials. From Monday, we will levy fines on everyone including users,” an official said.
Accordingly, fines have been drafted as per government order and anybody caught violating the plastic ban in the city will be charged with fine. A special team has been on the run to seize plastic bags and other plastic items from the Koyambedu market complex. But as the supply of plastic carry bags was continued on a regular basis, they wanted to find the source, the chief administrative officer of MMC, S Govindarajan, told TOI.
“We got information that shop number GA 31 was supplying these bags to the vendors. So we searched the shop on Thursday and have locked it. We have informed corporation officials who will inspect the seized material and take action,” he said.
“We have been creating awareness among shop owners and have taken measures to implement the ban,” another official quoted.
The corporation has seized about 250 tonnes of banned plastic items from different parts of the city since January 1, 2019. The highest seizure was from Kodambakkam zone followed by Royapuram where 55.5 tonnes and 25.7 tonnes of banned plastic were seized respectively.
We hope other cities take inspiration from Chennai and impose some serious measures to curb plastic pollution.