MUMBAI: A year after the Maharashtra government banned the usage of plastic bags, a report presented by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday, stated, in one year, 10,35,207 raids were conducted in which officials confiscated 61,851 kilograms of plastic, earning them a total amount of Rs 3.47 crore from fines. Most of plastic confiscated were from raids and remaining was acquired by fining licenced plastic sellers, manufacturers and markets. Interestingly not much fines have been collected from customers.
Out of the entire seized amount of plastic, 28,000 kgs were seized in the first four months, whilst 32,000 kgs were seized in the last eight months. The maximum amount of plastics were seized from the shops amounting to 46,000 kgs. Most amount of fines collected from shopkeepers amounted to Rs 2.36 crore. In Mumbai it does seem this campaign has lost its steam with the state wide ban on plastic that was issued a year ago. Single use plastic is back in action and BMC blue squads that were supposed to raid shops have disappeared from the city.
