The Integrated Tribal Development Authority (ITDA) has announced a ban on the use of single-use plastic in Visakhapatnam Agency from mid-April.
From April first week, the ITDA will conduct coordination meets for a week or 10 days with the sarpanches, panchayat secretaries, Village Revenue Officers (VROs) and the tourism agencies in the Agency areas and discuss how to implement the action plan at the ground level. After the meets, the officials will start enforcing the ban.
In 2019, the ITDA has announced a ban on use of single-use plastic in Araku mandal, which receives a major share of tourists. Despite creating awareness, the plan had failed to yield the desrired results owing to the busy election schedule and other reasons. This time, the ITDA officials have planned to enforce the ban in all the 11 mandals of the Agency.
“There are 244 panchayats in the 11 mandals of the Agency. We expect all the sarpanches will put of their effort to combat the plastic menace. We will take inputs from the sarpanches, VROs, panchayat officials before implementing the action plan,” said ITDA Project Officer S. Venkateswar.
Penalty proposed
The plan is to stop the sale and use of plastic sachets, bottles, and other forms of plastic in the Agency, for which teh ITDA will hold talks with commercial establishments, tourism agencies, small-scale businessmen. Alternate arrangements such as paper bags with the support of NGOs is also being planned. Another area of focus is the weekly-shandies where the ban needs to be strictly enforced, he said. After creating awareness on plastic ban, the officials propose to collect fines up to ₹10,000 from the violators.
Garbage disposal
The officials have planned to procure garbage bins in two colours for wet and dry waste for villages. Having bins in every 50 metres will go a long way to prevent littering. “Plans are afoot to procure garbage bins with the 15th Finance Commission grants. The estimates are being prepared. Once the MPTC, ZPTC elections are over, the ITDA will call for tenders. In the further stages, the waste will be disposed of using solid waste management (SWM) techniques,” said the ITDA PO.
The ITDA is also planning to put up caution boards at tourist spots against littering and use of plastic. The sarpanches can take up initiatives in their villages in this regard. “If needed, we may impose fines on the tourists for littering and using plastic,” Mr. Venkateswar said.
