Mumbai: Flying squads coming for single-use plastic bags in MMR!

The clean-up marshals issuing fines to people in A Ward

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has formed Flying Squads in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to crackdown on the single-use plastics which have been banned. Chairman of MPCB Siddhesh Ramdas Kadam has sought for stricter enforcement to stop the use of single-use plastics during a meeting of regional officers of MPCB in the MMR region.

"In this context, the MPCB has set up teams / squads for Mumbai, Mumbai suburbs, Thane, Kalyan, Dombivli, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Navi Mumbai and Panvel municipalities and Badlapur Municipal Council. Initially action will be taken through these squads against the establishments that store and distribute single-use plastics, as well as establishments that distribute single-use plastic under the guise of compostable plastic." stated a press release by MPCB.

The state government has banned the manufacture, sale, use, distribution and storage of single-use plastics under the Maharashtra Plastics and Thermocol Notification, 2018. Similarly, the Union Ministry of Forests and Environment has also banned the use of single-use plastics through a 2021 notification.

As per the instructions of the chairman of the MPCB, the officials of the municipal corporation concerned and officials of the local police department have been included in the squads. The teams will immediately start conducting surprise visits to the establishments and the report will be submitted to the chairman of the MPCB every week.

2018
Year single-use plastic was banned in state