A drive against the use of illegal plastic bags was conducted at various markets in Dum Dum Park by a team of officials from South Dum Dum Municipality on Sunday.

Biswajit Prasad, the councillor of Ward 28 of the South Dum Dum Municipality, along with other civic officials, visited the Dum Dum Park market which has shops selling groceries, fruits, vegetables, poultry, fish and meat.

The team also visited a couple of other temporary markets in Dum Dum Park and asked shopkeepers to use bags made out of biodegradable items such as paper, jute and cloth.

A notification from the Centre’s environment ministry has banned plastic bags with a thickness of less than 75 microns. According to the guidelines, bags having a thickness of more than 120 microns should be used.

The decision to launch a crackdown on thin plastic bags, which are generally handed out to shoppers at nearly every market in Dum Dum was taken after the civic body found that plastic bags were the most prominent cause of blocks in sewerage and drainage lines.

“During a recent cleanup of the drainage lines we found them choked with plastic items of every kind. Plastic bags were the major component we found during the cleanup,” said Prasad.

Shopkeepers in most markets across Dum Dum Park, Lake Town and Bangur hand out thin plastic bags to customers. At The Dum Dum Park Market, most shops that sell groceries, vegetables and fish were found using such bags.

“Many people don’t bring bags and we have to hand out groceries in something that they can carry easily. If not, our sales will dip. We have to rely on plastic bags. But of course, we will comply with whatever rules the civic body sets,” said Shyamal Jana, a grocer at the market.

Prasad and the civic officials also handed out paper and cloth bags to the shopkeepers on Sunday.

Another shopkeeper confessed on condition of anonymity that bags with a thickness of less that 50 microns cost ₹30 per set of 100 but those with thickness of more than 50 microns cost ₹50-60 per set of 100.