Balangir: The municipality resumed its drive to curb the use of polythene in the town after stopping it midway when it had originally kicked off in November last.

The Balangir Municipality employees, accompanied by police, on Thursday conducted raids on some 30 business establishments and shops around the municipality office area and found that 11 of them were using polythene despite the ban. An amount of Rs 17,400 were collected as fine from the erring shop owners.

The ban had been enforced in the town in 2015.

The drive that had begun in November last ensured to a great extent that the town remained polythene free. But after a few days, the civic body stopped the raids resulting in recurring of the instances of polythene use by the shop owners.

The municipality attributed the stopping of raids with the hope that people and shop owners would take part in shunning polythene voluntarily. "It is not always possible to achieve something by imposition. We thought that people would take part in the drive on their own. But, it proved wrong. So, we are back in the action again," said the municipality's executive officer Nabin Patel.

However, this time the civic body is reportedly sticking to its gun though there is mixed reactions from traders and public about implementation of the ban.

Local resident Sanket Hota said it was a good decision on part of the municipal council. "Our neighbouring districts' headquarters towns such as Sambalpur and Sonepur have successfully implemented the ban. Though there had been efforts in the past to ban polythene in Balangir, it couldn't materialise," said Hota.

He further said roads and drains of the town were found amassed with polythene, which was not biodegradable. "The ban should be strictly enforced," he said.

Sanjaya Agrawal, a trader, however, said the decision to abruptly end the practice of using polythene lacked proper planning. "It would have been more effective had it been implemented in a phased manner instead of putting an end to the plastic use abruptly," Agrawal said.

The municipality's executive officer Navin Patel said the civic body would take all possible steps to ensure that Balangir became polythene free. "To safeguard health of the local people is the first and foremost duty of the municipality. We are not going back on the decision this time. Stringent action will be taken against anyone found using polythene. We, along with the police, conducted raids on some shops in the town. Some traders were caught using polythene even after the deadline. Penalties were collected from them. More raids will be conducted in the coming days. I appeal the traders to use paper bags or other alternatives," Patel said.