The ban on use of below-40 micron plastic carry bags has gone for a toss in the city with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation seemingly uninterested in enforcing the ban. The plastic ban that came into effect from July 1, 2011, with the laudable objective of phasing out non-biodegradable and environmentally harmful plastic carry bags, has ended up helping retailers make money selling the bags to customers, and totally failed to minimise environmental pollution.
What’s more, the traders are also causing a loss to GHMC as they are not paying a single paisa to the civic body on advertisements printed on carry bags. As per GHMC rules, any display of advertisement either on carry bags, walls, and hoardings in public, attracts advertisement fee. Though the GHMC had made it mandatory for manufacturers to print their name and registration number on plastic carry bags they sell so that people can complain if the bags lack specified thickness, banned plastic carry bags with fake registration numbers or without any registration number, are in circulation. However, big showrooms like Hyderabad Central, RS Brothers, and Big Bazaar among others are using above-40 micron plastic carry bags.
The GHMC has also failed to monitor whether retail outlets are offering incentives to customers using their own cloth and other environment-friendly carry bags. Most shops have upgraded their billing software to include charges for carry bags of the mandated thickness sold to customers. It was also made mandatory for traders to install boards at cash counters specifying the rates of carry bags that will be included in the bill. The penalty for violating this was a fine of Rs 5,000 for the first offence and cancellation of the trade licence for a repeated offence. However, nothing of this sort has been enforced.
Sources said about 2,500-odd plastic carry bag manufacturing units in and around the city are functioning without obtaining the mandatory registration number from the Pollution Control Board. The GHMC additional commissioner (health and sanitation), Mr L. Vandan Kumar, admitted that the plastic ban enforcement has slowed down considerably. “We will constitute special teams and start raiding the plastic manufacturing units, wholesalers and dealers soon,” he said.