With the municipal authorities clearing the backlog of garbage piled up during the strike of sanitation workers which ended last week, the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun has now resumed its focus on enforcement of the ban on polythene. Speaking to this correspondent, the Dehradun municipal commissioner Vijay Kumar Jogdande averred that the polythene ban enforcement had not been stopped earlier but was affected by the strike. He said, “We had never paused the enforcement drive though it was affected a bit due to the strike of the sanitation workers. But, now we are working again to enforce the polythene ban like it was being done earlier. We have instructed our teams to actively conduct the enforcement drive and also to keep a check in the assigned area to ensure that no one uses the banned polythene.”
Giving further details he said that on Thursday the municipal team had seized about 80 kilogrammes of the banned polythene. “The enforcement drive will continue.
We will continue our checking in all the vegetable shops and in the market so that no one uses it. People who will be caught involved in this will have to pay penalty and the polythene will be seized,” he added.
It is pertinent to mention here that though officials claim that the polythene ban enforcement has been going on for some time, the strike by sanitation workers had exposed the lack of effectiveness of the enforcement.
The bulk of garbage piled on roads and other public places during the strike was either stuffed in the banned polythene bags or comprised of the polythene to a large extent.
It now remains to be seen whether the renewed focus on enforcement of the ban on polythene will bring about the required results in the provisional State capital.