HYDERABAD: Making clear its intentions to ensure that no banned plastic products enter the market, the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) conducted surprise raids on stockists and distributors of plastic cover bags at Begum Bazaar here on Thursday.The bazaar, home to most of the city’s plastic distributors, was targeted on the back of the APPCB’s surprise raids on plastic manufacturers in the Kattedan area last week.“This is a three-stage process. First, we checked on manufacturers. Then today the distributors were checked, and finally in a few days, we will launch raids on vendors and dealers who actually make use of plastics that are non-conforming to proposed standards,” said M Siva Reddy, who heads the Task Force of the PCB in Hyderabad.In all, 17 shops in Begum Bazaar (out of a total of 60), were found to be flouting one of the two mandatory rules — selling plastic cover bags with width less than 40 microns, and failing to ensure proper labelling and marking on the covers.“We have imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of the erring shops and four shops, whose owners ran away on seeing us, have been sealed. We have also seized 1500 kg of illegal plastic,” added Reddy.He also mentioned that the Bazaar exported plastic cover bags to different parts of the country, thus creating a need for an urgent check on standards.
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