The teams of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and Nuisance Detection Squad (NDS) unit of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) conducted a raid at a factory seizing a stock of around 3 tonnes of banned plastic bags. The action has been taken on the basis of a complaint lodged by the Urban Cell of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Both the agencies sealed the factory. Two years have passed since the implementation of the decision to ban plastic in the State, but the production of banned items continues in many places in Nagpur district. Shrikant Shivankar of NCP’s Urban Cell noticed that a factory in Kalmana area of Nagpur was manufacturing plastic that was banned by the Government. He lodged a complaint on the basis of which both agencies took action. Shivankar said that production of plastic in the city is rampant, which shows that the manufacturers are not afraid of the law and the system.

 

The State Government has decided to ban plastic items that harm the environment two years ago, but even after that, plastic bags are still being used in the market. Also, plastic bags and other banned products are being manufactured on a large scale in many places. In the past few months, it has been observed that the adjacent part of Nagpur city is the most advanced in terms of plastic production. After many days of campaigning by Urban Cell, action has been taken through Nuisance Detection Squad. When Urban Cell came to know that banned plastic bags were being manufactured secretly in a factory called Jagdamba Plastics in Kalmana area, it informed the Municipal Corporation.” On getting information about this, a joint team of Nagpur Municipal Corporation and MPCB raided the factory. In this raid, 3 tonnes of stock of less than 50 micron bags were found in the factory. All the plastic stock in this factory was seized by MPCB team. Also, the official of MPCB informed that a case will be registered against the factory owner under Pollution Control Board and Environment Act.

 

As stocks of banned plastic are frequently found in Nagpur, these activities reveal that large amounts of plastic are being manufactured in the city. Director of Municipal Solid Waste Management department Dr Gajendra Mahalle, Pramod Lone from MPCB, NDS Team Head Veersen Tambe, Urbancell City President Srikant Shivankar, Eknath Phalke, Mehboob Pathan, Sushant Patnekar, Sunil Uke, Sanjay Joshi, Sandeep Khangar, Hemant Yadav, Mangesh Savarkar, Sandip Suradkar and others were present. This type of action will also be taken in future, and Municipal Corporation has appealed citizens not to use restrictive plastic bags. Although the plastic ban has been implemented in the state, in Nagpur city, the action taken by the Municipal Corporation and Pollution Control Board in the last year has revealed that a large amount of banned plastic is being manufactured in the city, but as the production continues despite repeated actions, these factories are not closed due to the financial interests of the relevant government departments, Shivankar raised a doubt.