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The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) officials on Thursday apprised the civic body staff of single-use plastic items banned by the government and their alternatives available in the market during a workshop held the municipal corporation’s (MC) Zone-A office.

The government had notified a ban on single-use plastic items from July 1.

The civic body officials were directed to continue issuing challans to violators and spread awareness about alternative products available in the market.

As per the notification, the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of earbuds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene (thermocol) for decoration, straws, plates, cups, spoons, fork, wrapping or packaging film, invitation cards, cigarette packets, plastic or PVC banners, among other plastic items etc are banned. The government has also imposed a ban on manufacturing and use of plastic carry bags since April 2016.

A change has been witnessed at ground level after the MC started issuing challans to violators, but banned items are still being used across the city.

MC joint commissioner Poonampreet Kaur said the workshop was organised to bring clarity on the items banned in the state. “The MC has already been issuing challans to violators and the drive will be intensified in the coming days,” she said. She further appealed to residents to shun the use of banned items to save the environment.

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The Enforcement Directorate on Friday seized ₹ 21 crore from the flat of Arpita Mukherjee in south Kolkata. Mukherjee's mother Minati Mukherjee and friends said that she was into modelling and came in touch with Partha Chatterjee, West Bengal industries and commerce minister and the ruling Trinamool Congress'state secretary general a few years back when she was engaged as a model by a local club in Chatterjee's neighbourhood during puja. Her mother stays in their ancestral house at Belgharia in North 24 Parganas.

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West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee arrested by ED in school recruitment scam

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