200 civic officials to keep an eye on plastic ban offenders post-deadline

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has assigned as many as 200 officials across the city licensed to take action against the plastic ban offenders. The move is to enable the plastic ban which will be enforced from June 23 after which the civic body will start taking punitive action.

The officials will be spread across all the 24 wards in the city and will have uniforms licensed by the corporation. The corporation has released a list of 200 officials assigned by the BMC and their contact details.

"These officials, who will be given proper identity cards and will sport uniforms, will be authorised to penalise citizens using plastic bags even after June 23, which is the deadline," said Kiran Dighavkar, BMC's nodal officer for Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan.

The civic body has planned to stratify the fine on use of plastic, which can go up to Rs 5,000 for the first violation, and Rs 10,000 for repeat offenders.

In order to implement the ban, three departments from the corporation will have to work in tandem — the markets department, which has an umbrella of 200-odd BMC markets, the shops and establishments department, which will keep an eye on shops across the city, and the licence department, which will ensure street hawkers and vendors comply with the ban.

The officials will be spread across all the 24 wards in the city and will have uniforms licensed by the corporation