Margao, March 28: Margao Municipal Council gave a new decision to ban plastic from April 1. In this regard, town market vendors have extended their support but they have demanded that the license granted by the civic body to those willing to pay the fees to be canceled.
Members of Margao New Market Traders’ Association and Gandhi Market Readymade Clothes, Vegetable Vendors Association met the Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes to discuss the proposed ban on plastic from April 1, 2018, onwards.
The vendors said MMC should first stop the supply of plastic bags to the shopkeepers and demanded that factories producing the bags be stopped immediately. However, Johnson explained to the vendors that the rules only empower him to take action against the vendors using plastic.
The vendors also demanded that the MMC’s proposal permitting the vendors by paying an annual sum of Rs 48,000 to provide plastic bags to customers be scrapped. “This amounts to penalizing the poor while letting the moneyed section to get away with anything,” they said.
“The MMC has a different yardstick for different people and seeks to target only the poor while letting the rich flourish in the market,” Rajendra Azgaonkar, president of Gandhi Market Vendors’ Association alleged.
Chief Officer Johnson explained that it was up to the vendors to stop the sale of plastic bags in the market. “If you refuse to buy then nobody will come to sell those plastic bags in the market,” he said but none of the vendors agreed to his suggestion.
Johnson appealed to the vendors to co-operate or else he said that he had no alternative but to file FIR against those not adhering to the new proposal.
“The law permits me to levy a fine of Rs 5,000 following which I can file an FIR with the police which will result in a case and then let the vendors move courts over their matters,” he said while explaining that those paying fee of Rs 48,000 will be permitted to keep plastic bags of over 50 microns that can be given to the customers only for a price and not for free.