Members of a polythene ban enforcement squad seize poythene carrybags in Cuttack

Cuttack, Jun 13: The municipal corporation has decided to launch a crackdown on polythene bags after failing to impose a ban on them in the city.

Three special squads have been formed to carry out surprise raids on business and other commercial institutions using polythene, said commissioner of the municipal corporation Gyanaranjan Das.

The corporation’s deputy secretary, recovery officer and health officer will lead the three squads. Each team would consist of 10 to 15 members including assistant engineers, sanitary inspectors and other officials.

“We have formed special squads to ensure a check on the use of polythene under the corporation limits and a massive crackdown will be launched from Monday,” Das said, adding that the city had been divided into three zones. Each squad would enforce the ban in 15 to 20 wards.

Senior officials said it was for the first time after a gap of nearly seven months that the corporation had decided to resume its drive against polythene. The last time the corporation had launched a crackdown was during last year’s Bali yatra.

The civic body had banned the use of polythene in the city in 2011, but it continues to be extensively used. The ban was imposed after widespread protest during a similar raid by the enforcement squad at Pithapur.

Besides, the decision of the district administration to declare five places — SCB hospital, Buxi Bazar, Badambadi, Choudhry Bazar and Jobra — as polythene-free zones, is also to see the light of the day.

The decision to create awareness and declare polythene-free zones was taken at a high-level meeting held in 2012 while no concrete measures have been taken so far to implement such decision.

District administration officials, on the other hand, said that a meeting would shortly be convened to chalk out a strategy on restricting the use of polythene in the city.

“It is almost three years since polythene was banned but a lot of people continue to use it despite several awareness drives,” said Ashima Das, a resident of College Square.

People said though a lot of shopping malls and commercial centres had switched to alternative net cotton bags to sell their products to the customers, more needed to be done to enforce the ban.

“Those using polythene should be penalised,” said Keshav Rout, a resident of Mahatab Road.