Hindustan Times 09.03.2010
Campaign to make markets plastic-freeMarking International Women’s Day, Mayor Shraddha Jadhav and Additional Municipal Commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar announced a campaign to make all municipal markets plastic free.
The campaign was flagged off at the Gopi Tank market in Dadar where all the vendors pledged to stop giving plastic carry bags to customers.
“We have got immense support from the vendors in the market since we first launched the anti-plastic campaign on January 26,” said Jadhav.
“We have decided to carry out the same in all the 103 municipal markets. We have provided an alternative of cloth bags to the vendors,” said Mhaiskar.
She added that they will appoint self-help groups as in charge for every market. These groups will make available cloth bags to customers at a bare minimum cost.
“The only problem that we haven't found a solution to is an alternative for carrying fish as paper becomes soggy and cloth bags will smell. We are working on it,” Mhaiskar
said.
Plastic bags thinner than 50 microns are banned after the 2005 deluge, as they were considered one of the main reasons for choked drains.
There is a 100 per cent ban on plastic bags in cities such as Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Kerala.
Mhaiskar said officials from the ward will be monitoring the markets.
Vendors who do not follow the no-plastic rule will find it difficult to get their licences renewed and if even after repeated reminders they continue to use plastic, they might lose their licence.
