Taj city battles polythene menace

AGRA - The Taj city has declared war on polythene.

The Agra Municipal Corp Tuesday launched a massive drive to clean up the city’s open drains of thousands of quintals of polythene, plastic bottles and wrappers that had choked the discharge of waste into the Yamuna.

“We have deployed machines and men and are trying to collect all the garbage to prevent its escape into the river once the water level in the Yamuna starts receding,” Municipal Commissioner Vinay Pandey told IANS.

He said the Bhairon and Fort drains were looking clean. “We will take up other nullahs (drains) later.”

Continuous rains in the past two weeks have washed all the dirt heaps and polythene dumps into the drains which open into the river.

The 17th century Taj Mahal is India’s biggest tourist draw. But it has often been criticised for its dirt and accumulated garbage.