‘80% plastic ban on all CR stations’
Eight days into their initiative of plastic-free railway stations, the CR on Tuesday claimed that 80 per cent of the stalls at suburban railway stations have stopped the sale of products packed in plastic.
The CR has listed banned products packed in plastic under four categories — biscuits, cakes, chips and namkeens. Henceforth, passengers on the CR will not get food products from Britannia, Parle, Monginis, Lays, Haldiram’s, Lehar Kurkure etc — all of which comes in plastic packaging.
The move aims to make stations plastic-free so that people refrain from throwing wrappers and packets on to the tracks and platforms. “Eighty per cent of the stall owners have stopped selling eatables packed in plastic. This is been done to control visual pollution at stations and to reduce possibility of water-logging during monsoons,” said V.A. Malegaonkar, chief public relations officer of CR, adding that the administration spends `10 to 12 crores annually for rag-picking and cleanliness at stations.
The ban is on food items packed in plastic wrappings, laminated plastics, metalised film packets, sulphite paper-packing and aluminum foil packings.
Major stations such as Kurla, Ghatkopar, Wadala and Dadar are now plastic-free, said CR.
However, certain stall owners are irked with the ban, citing that there are hardly any products available other than cooked ones to sell. A stall owner at Dadar requesting anonymity said, “We provide dustbins but people throw the packets on the tracks. There are not many products that can be sold with paper wrappers.” A delegation of stall owners is likely to meet CR authorities in this regard. At present, there are close to 200 stalls on the entire CR network.
A senior officer from the CR said, “It is not like passengers will not bring in these packets from outside. Most of the products are available in stores outside the stations.”
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