This City collects Rs 3.5 lakh in fines over Plastic ban violations, Traders threaten protests

25 Jun 2018

June 25, 2018:

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started implementation of the ban from last weekend.

Retailer’s Association in Mumbai, Maharashtra has threatened to go on a strike from Wednesday against the plastic ban if their demands for postponing Ban till the end of the monsoon and allowing buyback on plastic are not met by Tuesday.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) started implementation of the ban from Saturday.

BMC’s focus so far has been on the Retailers with the shops and stores facing penalties for storing and using plastic.

Till Sunday, BMC has fined around 87 shops, collecting fines over Rs 3.5 lakh.

Viren Shah, President, Federation of the Retail Traders Welfare Association (FRTWA) has stated that,“We have got news of huge loses to the retailers especially the grocery stores and sweet shops, which necessarily need plastic to not just sell but also store the products in plastic bags. They need these especially during monsoon to stop the products like farsan and sweets, from becoming moist. Most shops were shut due to the fear of Inspector Raj and penalties.”

Viren Shah further added that Association would like Government to postpone the ban till post monsoon.

He stated that just like milk packets and dairy products, even grocery stores should be given the permission to buy back the plastic packaging from the public.

Shah stated that,“We had written letters to the government stating all grocery stores would buy back the recyclable plastic from the customers at Rs 2 but these suggestions were not taken. We will now conduct a meeting with all retailers to analyse the losses till date on Tuesday and if the government does not consider our suggestions by Wednesday then we would declare a state-wide protest.”

He also questioned that if the branded products, which come in multi-layered plastic, are allowed, then why not recyclable plastic at local grocery stores.

Source HT