Agra goes all out against polythene bags

AGRA - Jan 1 has been fixed as the deadline to declare the Taj city polythene bag-free and the countdown has begun in right earnest with over 125 citizens’ groups and NGOs joining the battle.

“This is by far the biggest and the most ambitious drive to make the city clean and free from the menace of polythene that is not only a health hazard but constitutes a major chunk of municipal waste,” Vinay Shankar Pandey, the municipal commissioner, told IANS.

Pandey said more than 50,000 citizens will form a human chain Dec 19 to send out the message - “enough, no more polythene bags”.

In just three days of the “polythene dakshina” programme, corporation employees and voluntary workers have collected several quintals of polythene bags.

Agra’s almost 200 km long sewer network is choked because of the polythene menace. Around 60 percent of municipal waste comprises polythene. Agra has 19 big drains and around 120 smaller outlets for liquid waste and almost all are choked with polythene.

Pandey said business chambers and Agra Plastic dealers association have supported the cause.

“In the first phase for about a fortnight, there will be awareness and educational activities involving NGOs, artists, cartoonists, just everyone who has the good of the Taj city at heart, including schoolchildren and elected representatives. The media will be sensitised, local cable networks will show special programmes, a human chain behind the Taj Mahal would be formed,” he said.

“In the second phase, the corporation will use the arm of law, and punish those shopkeepers and retailers who continue to use polythene carrybags. Anyone found using polythene bags would be fined Rs.500 in the first instance and later Rs.2,000.”

Mayor Anjula Singh Mahaur is leading groups of elected corporators in their respective wards to sensitise people towards the problems that use of polythene creates.

Rakesh Chauhan, president of the Agra Hotels and Restaurants Association, has promised that all hotels and restaurants in the city would commit themselves to stop the use of polythene bags in any form.

B.B. Awasthi, regional officer of the Uttar Pradesh pollution control board, says use of polythene must stop as it was damaging ecology, it “is a threat to animals and is responsible for the release of noxious gases in the environment.

Rajiv Rathi, Agra municipal corporation’s special officer for environment, says if people stop the use of polythene, the major problem of cleaning of drains would be automatically solved.

Pandey said the corporation has also decided to distribute jute and cloth bags to the public. “We intend to get 200,000 bags made with support from our sponsors. These would be distributed through various channels to sensitise people who should start carrying their own bags,” Pandey explained.

(Brij Khandelwal can be contacted at brij.k@ians.in)