Bhubaneswar: In a major crackdown on banned plastic and polythene items, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) raided an illegal polythene manufacturing unit in the Bhagwaanpur area in the city yesterday.
Following the search, officials seized a huge quantity of polythene materials worth lakhs of rupees.
The civic body has also imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 on the manufacturing unit.
Acting on a tip-off, a special enforcement squad of the BMC conducted a raid and seized around 69 bags comprising 15kg polythene each.
After seizing the polythene materials, Zonal deputy commissioner Ravi Narayan informed the pollution control board for examination. The team comprising an environmentalist along with the analyst reached the spot and examined the illegal materials used in manufacturing.
The raid was led by the deputy commissioner sanitation Subendhu Kumar Sahu along with BMC’s SBA environment critic, Kritiman Sarangi and Sunil Kumar Samal.
As per reports, the plastic bags manufacturing units were running without a trade license and without a grant of pollution control board clearance.
Notably, Odisha government had banned single-use plastic in all urban areas of the State since 2 October 2019. Though BMC is launching raids at regular intervals, some illegal units are still operating in the city.
