The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has directed all the
major malls and chain stores in Greater Hyderabad limits to display the
prices of plastic carry bags they charge customers and also the
discounts given on purchases if customers carry their own cloth or jute
bags.

The list is to be displayed at the cash counters by September 15.

Municipal
commissioner MT Krishna Babu, along with additional commissioner
(H&S) L Vandan Kumar, held a meeting with major wholesale and retail
dealers, shopping malls with regard to ban on usage of plastic carry
bags and to encourage usage of cloth and jute bags as per the
notification of the Union ministry of environment and forest.

The
commissioner said customers, carrying their own cloth or jute bags to
shops and purchase goods worth `500, should be given a discount of Rs 3
on the total purchase bill and a discount of `5  is proposed if the
purchase value exceeds Rs 1,000. 

He said the main objective of the exercise is to discourage the use of plastic carry bags and not to harass shop owners.

Because
customers were now being charged for the bags, the usage of plastic
carry bags had come down by 40 percent in the last two years and
shoppers started carrying their own cloth or jute bags, he claimed.

Representative
of GVK One, Spencer’s Hyper Market, Mor Supermarket, Reliance Fresh
Limited, Shopper’s Stoppe, City Mall, Big Bazaar, Food World, Ratnadeep
Super Market, Rainbow Industries, Chintamani Plastic Industries, Balaji
Grand Bazar, Durga Plastics, Popular Plastics and other reputed business
managements and office-bearers of trade body FAPCCI, senior officials
of the health wing of the municipal corporation participated in the
meeting.