Since April 14, monitoring teams, including officials from MoSTE, Department of Environment (DoE) and the police officials have been inspecting retail shops, department stores for substandard polythene bags.
Over the last 10 days, the monitoring teams have already inspected 700 retail shops, 28 department stores and vegetable shops.
"Until Wednesday, our teams had collected seven quintals of plastic bags. A similar quantity of plastic bags were seized the following day. This drive will continue for another week and the final report will be reviewed again," said Director General at DoE, Suroj Pokharel.
On Thursday alone, 150 kilograms of plastic bags were seized from Chabel-Gausala area, 50 kgs from Nakkhu, 200kgs from Balaju, 50 kgs from Mangalbazar, 50 kgs from Thamel and 200 kilograms from Lainchor and Dhobighat area. In addition to that, another 100 kgs of plastic bags were collected on Friday as well.
"In the course of inspection, we have sought clarifications from 11 people who were found carrying sub-standard polythene bags," said Pokharel.
People using plastic bags can be fined up to Rs 50,000 and/or jailed for two years if found carrying plastic bags. Sales and use of plastic bags less than 40 microns inside the Kathmandu Valley is prohibited. However, outside the Valley, the use of plastic bags above 30 microns is allowed.
Meanwhile, Pokharel shared that people are responding positively to the ban. "We can succeed in this movement if people support us," he said.
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