Corporation officials seize 100 kg banned plastic items in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: Coimbatore Corporation officials seized over 100 kg banned plastic items from more than 30 shops across the city and imposed fines over Rs 25,000.

Senior officials including sanitary supervisors and sanitary inspectors raided shops in all the five zones and seized the banned items, mostly plastic carry bags, plastic-coated paper cups and few other items.

As per the Corporation’s health wing officials, the raid was not a special drive, but a part of the routine work that the officials had been doing prior to the start of the election process.

Officials targeted grocery stores, juice shops, and bars attached to liquor outlets. During the raids, they faced resistance from shopkeepers who claimed that they had stored plastic covers as primary packing materials, which the State Government had exempted from the ban. However, officials continued to seize those items categorising as one-time use plastic items which was banned by the government

Government imposed ban on one-time use plastic items, earlier on January 1, 2019, the Corporation had seized 2,404 kg banned plastic goods from nearly 14,000 establishments and imposed ₹5.19 lakh as fine on the owners.