The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is working on a policy that will require vendors to offer paper bags for a nominal fee.
The information was shared by mayor Krishna Chakraborty with The Telegraph Salt Lake on the sidelines of the World Environment Day celebration at Poura Bhavan on June 5. Speaking at the event, Chakraborty also discouraged the use of plastic bags and asked for the co-operation of residents to enforce the ban.
“We constantly urge shopkeepers to switch from plastic to paper bags, but they persist. Even when we conduct inspections, they hide plastic bags and bring them out for use later. I ask residents to stand firm and refuse plastic bags offered by shopkeepers. Carry your own jute or paper bags from home,” she said.
World Environment Day was celebrated at Poura Bhavan by distributing saplings and sharing words of advice on protecting the planet. Held in association with Bidhannagar Horticulture Society, the event had Rahima Bibi Mondal, mayor-in-council member in charge of environment, calling for a solution to plastic pollution.
“This is the focus of today's meet. We need to be united to protect the environment,” she said. The corporation had issued a prohibitory order on the use of single-use plastic measuring below 75 microns, which came in effect from May 1 last year. The ban was imposed after sewerage and drainage lines were found to be clogged with plastic last monsoon.
Since July 1, a fine of Rs 500 for sellers and Rs 50 for buyers has been in place for use of banned plastic bags. But the civic body has failed to enforce the ban in the civic markets where thin plastic bags continue to be in use with impunity. When informed about the idea to introduce paper bags, sellers in block markets had mixed responses.
Arun Roy, secretary of CA Market Babsayee Samity, said it would be awkward to charge customers for bags. “We have personal relationships with our customers. How can we charge them for bags?” said Roy, adding that some customers accept cloth bags from their shops while others prefer to carry the items in hand.
When the ban on plastic under 75 microns was implemented, a couple of vegetable vendors at CA Market had got fined Rs 500 each. “But they should also fine customers. How else will the ban be effective? We constantly announce on our loudhailers asking both parties to abstain from using plastic,” he said.
There is also confusion about the 75 micron limit getting upgraded to 120 microns but Roy says they have received no official notice about it from the corporation. “And what about vendors who have already purchased 75 micron bags in bulk? They had no warning about the new ban,” he argued.
As for switching to paper, he said meat and fish vendors would have a tough time. “Paper bags will get soggy and tear if meat is packed in them.”
Meanwhile, the corporation is planning to procure plastic detectors to measure the thickness of bags in use around the corporation area. The event at Poura Bhavan was attended by ministers Sujit Bose and Jyotipriya Mullick, MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Sougata Ray, MLAs Tapash Chatterjee and Aditi Munshi, mayor Krishna Chakraborty, deputy mayor Anita Mondal and municipal commissioner Sujay Sarkar among others.
“We must neither cut trees nor let others do so,” Bose said. “And if they must be felled for the sake of development, it must be compensated for by planting more trees. Our duties don’t end with planting saplings. We must look after them too,” Bose said.