The Anantapur Municipal Corporation (AMC) has collected ₹80,000, as against ₹12,000 that it had collected in three years before drive began, as a penalty from wholesalers, vendors, food stall owners for using single-use plastic as packaging material or for serving food, in 11 days of its campaign.
Municipal Corporation Public Health Officer and in charge of sanitation in the city Sangam Srinivas told The Hindu that there were 9,000 commercial establishments registered with the AMC and all of them were found to be using this type of plastic.
“We have targeted the wholesale dealers, 26 in number, who mainly procure this kind of material from the manufacturers and supply to the users locally,” Mr. Srinivas added.
From Monday, we have started targeting the users also and are destroying plastic cups, and plates at tea kiosks, he said, appealing to the users to not to accept plastic glasses, cups, plates.
A number of hotels are still supplying eatables packed in single-use plastic through the delivery app aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato, which should be watched by the buyers and brought to the notice of the Corporation, he said.
The AMC has been raising awareness and raiding bakeries, hotels, and stockists regularly and close to 80% of the vegetable vendors and tea kiosk owners have switched over to alternative materials.
