The use and sale of plastic bags go unabated in Guwahati despite the Kamrup (Metro) District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) directing the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) to initiate strict action against anyone found using them.
DDMA chairman and Kamrup (Metro) deputy commissioner, Biswajit Pegu had on December 3, directed the civic body to impose a fine on any person or private or commercial establishment for using and selling plastic shopping bags below the recommended standard of 50 microns.
The GMC has also stopped conducting regular drives to check the use of plastic in the city.
A report quoted GMC collector Nabadeep Changma as saying, “We have conducted raids in several wholesale market places to check the use of plastic bags below the recommended standard.”
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“Since we are not conducting drives on a regular basis, it is possible that sale and use of plastic are continuing in some places,’ he said.
The municipal corporation is trying to find a permanent solution to this problem.
The DDMA chairman had also directed the municipal corporation to take strict action against those contaminating the water of natural drains by dumping garbage in them.
The majority of the natural drains are blocked with the garbage dumped by people, thereby obstructing the flow of water through them.
Moreover, even if municipal workers carry out de-silting of drains, they do not properly dispose off the waste matter dug out from the drains and heap them on the roadside.