SUP ban: Delhi gears up for imposing hefty fines on violators

New Delhi, July 8 (IANS) After carrying out more than 3,500 inspections across industrial areas along with awareness drives in connection with the ban on single use plastic (SUP), the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) on Friday said it is gearing up to fine violators -- ranging from Rs 6-10 lakh -- from next week onwards.

After the SUP ban from July 1, the Delhi government had announced to take it easy till July 10 and focus on awareness drives. Now, starting from July 11, the authorities are gearing up to take strict measures to ensure complete implementation of the ban.

There are three apps that have been launched by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) as it enforced the SUP ban -- one for business and industrial units to register themselves, second for the state governments to post their monitoring efforts and third for the consumers and common citizens to alert the administration or air their grievances in connection with the ban.

"In all, our 15 teams are criss-crossing Delhi's industrial units - especially north, northwest and west Delhi areas - that are into manufacture of either polythene or products made of SUP. Our awareness drives have resulted in 100-odd registrations on the registration App," said a DPCC official.

After CPCB conducted virtual training for state PCBs or the PCCs, the DPCC now is conducting training for the local bodies. Asked why it took so long to train after the ban was imposed, the official said, "Since last year, different training programmes have been conducted. This is only the latest in the series."

For the common people, the DPCC has been putting up advertisements in newspapers prominently while it is the teams from the municipal corporation or Delhi government's revenue departments that are focusing on spreading awareness amongst citizens and also imposing monetary fines on individuals.

"Now from July 11, our team shall be visiting the industrial areas again to keep a watch and start imposing fines on violators," said Sunil Kumar, DPCC's nodal officer for implementing the SUP ban.

There are industries in red, orange and green categories, as per CPCB's regular classification, depending on the intensity of pollution caused. "No red industry will be allowed for any SUP product. And for industries falling in green that are found manufacturing SUP items, the fine would be Rs 4 lakh and for those in orange category, the fine would be Rs 6 lakh," Kumar said.

The Centre has put a total ban on identified SUP items from July 1 and states are delegated to check illegal manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of banned single use plastic items. The states and UTs have also been asked to set up border checkpoints to stop inter-state movement of any banned items.