Private firms roped in against plastic
The city Corporation has sought the cooperation of private firms and groups to supply cloth and paper bags to the residents, as part of its anti-plastic drive. The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), the apex body of real estate developers, has agreed to supply around 50,000 cloth bags. The first batch of 10,000 bags will be supplied within ten days, say Corporation sources. UST Global has also agreed to contribute cloth bags for the initiative through residents’ associations. “The Corporation is in talks with several other companies too, so that a large number of bags can be made available, to replace all the plastic bags that have been banned. In Kazhakuttam, a jewellery distributed cloth bags to all houses under a residents’ association. We are also thinking of distributing cloth bags to those who are seen carrying plastic bags,” said a Corporation source. Currently, eleven squads of the Corporation are actively continuing with inspections across shops in the city to ensure that no one is using plastic carry bags. Bigger raids, as were seen recently at the Pothys store, are being planned. “To raid the big stores, one or two squads might not be enough. We need to combine all the squads to effectively finish the raid without much delay. We have got complaints regarding some big textile groups who are still using plastic bags. There are plans to conduct more raids in such shops,” says the source. The squads have not faced much opposition till now, except from a group of manufacturers of plastic bags. Last week, the group opposed a squad that was conducting a raid in Chala market, by producing an RTI reply that said that plastic had not been banned in Kerala.
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