Plastic ban: Mumbai collects ₹3.5 lakh in fines
MUMBAI: The retailer’s association in Mumbai has threatened to go on a strike from Wednesday against the plastic ban if their demands for postponing the ban until the end of the monsoon and allowing buyback on plastic are not met by Tuesday.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) started implementation of the ban from Saturday. The civic body’s focus so far has been on retailers with shops and stores facing penalties for storing and using plastic.
Until Sunday, the BMC has fined around 87 shops, collecting fines over ~3.5 lakh.
Viren Shah, president, Federa- tion of Retail Traders Welfare Association (FRTWA), said, “We have got news of huge losses to the retailers, especially the grocery stores and sweet shops, which necessarily need plastic to not just sell but also store the products in plastic bags.
“They need these especially during monsoon to stop the products like farsan and sweets, from becoming moist. Most shops were shut due to the fear of Inspector Raj and penalties.”
Shah said the association would like the government to postpone the ban until the monsoon is over. “We had written letters to the government stating all grocery stores would buy back the recyclable plastic from the customers at ~2 but these sugges- tions were not taken. We will now conduct a meeting with all retailers to analyse the losses to date on Tuesday.
“If the government does not consider our suggestions by Wednesday, then we would declare a statewide protest.”
Meanwhile, the civic body’s plastic ban squad inspecting B ward that includes Pydhonie, Sandhurst Rd, Byculla areas of South Mumbai faced ire and protests from local retailers. As the squad entered the market, the retailers stared at them and then a group of shop keepers started following the squad around.
A few people from this mob started shouting slogans like ‘Bazaar Chodo BMC’ and even tried to intimidate the officials.