KMC blames PCB over flouting single-use plastic ban in Calcutta markets and vice-versa
Telegraph | 24 March 2025
The city’s markets are flooded with single-use plastics that were formally banned in July 2022 and government agencies continue to squabble over who should take the lead to enforce the ban.
Calcutta’s mayor Firhad Hakim on Saturday said that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) did not have the executive power to stop the supply of single-use plastics (SUP) to the city’s markets. He put the onus on the state pollution control board (PCB) and police, a claim that a senior PCB official refuted.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the PCB was a regulatory body, and the KMC was responsible for raiding markets.
Plastics less than 120 microns thick, loosely called single-use plastic because people tend to use them once and throw them away, are banned across the country.
“The KMC faces the flak for single-use plastics remaining in circulation, but we do not have the executive power to stop it. The supply is coming from Burrabazar and from places like Bagree market. The PCB and the police have to hit at the source to stop the supply,” Hakim said while replying to a councillor’s question on the widespread use of such plastics in the city.
The mayor said he had raised the issue with the PCB “several times”. “I hope the PCB will hit the roads with the police. The single-use plastics are also coming from Nepal and Bhutan,” Hakim said.
A senior official of the PCB said the plastic waste management rules have entrusted the municipal corporations with the responsibility of implementing the ban.
“The PCB cannot go from market to market to stop the sale of single-use plastics,” said the official.
“We wrote to the KMC seeking a raid by PCB, Kolkata Police and the KMC but we did not receive any reply.”
A press release by the Centre’s press information bureau (PIB) in 2022 mentioned that the urban development departments of the states, under which the municipal corporations work “have been directed to take necessary action for implementation of SUP ban”.
Single-use plastic items cannot be recycled. They remain in the environment and break down into microplastics and nanoplastics over the years. Microplastic particles (MP) “have been detected in air, water, soil, food and beverages, indicating that exposure of humans to these particles is ubiquitous,” the World Health Organisation said in a 2022 publication.