Plastic bag ban kicks off

TT, Siliguri, Dec. 2: The municipal corporation today launched a drive to enforce a ban on the use of plastic carry bags, but refrained from fining violators.

The opposition Trinamul Congress said the mayor and the MMIC concerned had stayed away from the drive and the civic body was not sincere about implementing the ban.

Officials from the conservancy department of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation visited different markets today and seized around 20kg of plastic carry bags from shopkeepers. However, they didn't penalise any trader or customer found flouting the ban.

"We had to face opposition from some people carrying plastic carry bags, while a section of shopkeepers claimed that they didn't even know about the ban. Many people questioned us and we had to tell them about the ban. Had there been a consistent awareness campaign, we could have implemented the ban in a smoother way," said an official of the conservancy department, who didn't want to be named.

"It is good that we did not collect fine today or else, the situation would have been much worse," he added.

It had been decided yesterday that a fine of Rs 50 would be imposed on anyone found using plastic carry bags and Rs 500 on shopkeepers who stored the items.

Nantu Pal, the leader of opposition at the SMC, said the civic body was not sincere about enforcing the ban.

"We are not satisfied with the manner in which the SMC started the drive against the use of plastic carry bags. We visited different markets today and found people carrying items in plastic bags. The ban can be imposed completely only through a continuous process. To ensure this, it is necessary to have all councillors and representatives of different organisations on board. We are surprised that the mayor is away from Siliguri today and there is no proper plan on implementing the ban," Pal said.

Ranjan Sarkar, the Darjeeling district Trinamul president, said: "We doubt the sincerity of the civic authorities in this regard. Had they considered the ban seriously, they could have started the awareness drive much earlier. The mayor left Siliguri yesterday, while the member mayor-in-council (conservancy), did not attend today's drive. No specific direction was passed on to the civic employees who went for the drive either."

Sources said Mukul Sengupta, MMIC (conservancy), had a medical emergency in his family. The mayor, Asok Bhattacharya, is in Calcutta for the CPM state secretariat meeting.