VIJAYAWADA: To eliminate single-use plastic in Vijayawada, Krishna district administration along with Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has decided to slap a hefty penalty of Rs 50,000-Rs 1 lakh on traders violating the ban, said District Collector A Md Imtiaz.
The Collector convened a coordination committee meeting at his camp office in the city on Saturday with VMC, revenue, police and commercial tax officials to discuss the measures being taken for implementing the ban on single-use plastic effectively.
Speaking on the occasion, he directed the officials concerned to keep a vigil on industries and individuals who are selling, manufacturing, storing, transporting and supplying the banned plastic products in the city and its suburbs.
In this regard, instructions were given to VMC, revenue, police and commercial tax department officials to carry out joint surprise checks at shopping malls across the city.
“Since August 21, (gazette notification issue date) the public health department officials of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation have carried out surprise checks and collected a penalty of Rs 17 lakh,” Imtiaz said, adding that the district administration has been acting tough on traders and shopkeepers to eliminate single-use plastic.
The Collector further said that during the standing committee meeting held recently, a resolution was passed to impose a penalty of Rs 50,000 initially on commercial establishments and readymade showrooms whose GST turnover crosses Rs 40 lakh, if they are found using single-use plastic. If they were violating the ban for the second time they would be slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh and, their trade licence would be cancelled for the third mistake, he said.
Municipal Commissioner V Prasanna Venkatesh said that bankers expressed their interest in funding SHGs under MSME loans for manufacturing jute bags as alternative to plastic. In this regard, the industries department should also come forward and extend its support for the environmental cause.
“We came to know that still several garment stores in the city are giving plastic bags to their customers to carry new purchases. Stern action will be taken against them during the special drive to be carried out shortly,’’ he warned. Joint Collector K Madhavi Latha, Sub-Collector Dhayana Chandra, VMC Additional Commissioner U Sarada Devi, Chief Medical Officer of Health K Arjuna Rao and other officials were also present at the coordination committee meeting.