Civic body fines three traders for banned plastic use

Tirupati : In order to contain plastic menace in the pilgrim city, Municipal Corporation officials led by Commissioner Narapureddy Mourya, conducted surprise raids on several shops in Indira Priyadarshini vegetable market here on Wednesday.

The officials raided three wholesale shops that are supplying plastic covers to shop keepers and levied a penalty of Rs 7 lakh on three wholesale shop owners. A hefty penalty of Rs 2.9 lakh was imposed on a shop, after finding huge stock of plastic carry bags.

The Commissioner said that despite a ban on the usage of plastic bags with thickness less than 120 microns, its usage is going on. Petty shop keepers, roadside vendors, eatery joints are using banned plastic bags to the pilgrims, where about one lakh devotees daily visit the temple town.

Commissioner Mourya said they found wholesale shops using banned plastic items and warned of imposing heavy fine on those, who continue use of banned plastic. Meanwhile, locals criticised the Corporation authorities for their negligence in checking usage of banned plastic items by shopkeepers, eateries and vendors, taking advantage of the pilgrim flow. They questioned, when the TTD is able to impose a total ban on plastic in Tirumala, why the corporation authorities couldn’t impose the same in Tirupati? A retired official Subrahmanyam noted that political parties also should support the corporation to keep the famous pilgrim centre free of plastic. Health officer Dr Yuva Anvesh Reddy, sanitary supervisors Chenchaiah, Sumati and others were present.