Heads-up! Blue squad of BMC may pay a visit soon

The Blue Squad of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) may soon start visiting shops to check single use of plastic which is banned across the state. The squad reportedly stopped conducting checks around a month ago.

To implement the plasic ban, the civic body had formed a special squad consisting of 300 officials from Market, License and Shop and Establishments. The squad used to visit malls, shops, and establishments, well-known eateries in search of banned plastic and collected fines.

Last week, Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray during his meeting with civic chief Praveen Pardeshi, discussed the implementation of plastic ban in the city and also requested to reactivate the Blue Squad to check single-use plastic in the city.

With 300 officials from the Market, License and Shop and Establishments departments involved in the squad, work of these departments was severely affected. "Last year, the Blue Squad had visited more than 6 lakh shops across the city. This had brought down the number of violations in one year. So, the officials were asked to concentrate on their respective departments and carry out day to day work," said an official from the License department.

PLASTIC BAN

• Aditya Thackeray requested civic chief Praveen Pardeshi, to reactivate Blue Squad to check single-use plastic in the city
   
• Last year the civic body seized around 61,000 kg plastic and collected `3 crore as fine