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Chaitanya Prasad, principal secretary, urban development department, Bihar has instructed official concerned of Bhagalpur municipal corporation (BMC) to implement the strategies which earlier passed by the board of BMC to make Bhagalpur polythene free zone.

Bhagalpur would have been the first polythene free city in Bihar provides proper steps would be taken properly in time.

Prasad who visited Bhagalpur to review the meeting of urban bodies and different projects worth more than Rs 1000 crores under chief ministers Seven Nischay Yojna scheme, instructed Shyam Behari Meena, town commissioner, BMC, to implement the concept of polythene free zone at Bhagalpur city on ground zero level. “It’s a good innovative which already passed from the meeting of BMC’s board, why it takes so late to implement,” he asked with annoyance.

A group of ward councilors with mayor, BMC, Seema Sha who called on Prasad after the review meeting, complained how the civic system completely paralyzed here mainly due to indifferent attitude of official concerned of BMC including the town commissioner. The mayor and the ward councilors counted the problems like scarcity of drinking water, failure of sewage system, failure of clearing piles of garbage on roads and public places along with other problems.

“I told him how we managed to pass the resolution for making the city free from polythene at BMC’s board meeting in 2016 during my tenure as deputy mayor,” said Prity Shakher, a ward member. She said that it was decided to make the city free from polythene first time in Bihar which would also be appropriate for Bhagalpur which upgraded as a smart city. She alleged that   due to the hostile attitude of the official concerned at BMC, the proposal which already passed in BMC’s board meeting, laying in the west paper box. “Since the proposal was passed, now it’s the responsibility of the BMC to formulate strategies of how to counter the rampant use of polythene in the city,” she said.

Piles of garbage is common at Bhagalpur.

Meena could not be contracted but sources from BMC said that different teams would have to create for countering the use of polythene as well as to promote the alternatives such as paper bags or bags made from plant tissues among the residents here. “Hope very soon BMC would accelerate for countering the use of polythene in the city areas,” the source pointed out.

Mayor, Seema Sha who castigated the town commissioner for making the import civic works like drainage system, drinking water facilities etc defunct, urged Prasad’s immediate intervention. However, Prasad assured her and said he already instructed the town commissioner along with other concerned officials of BMC to speed up all the projects. Prasad also in his strict instruction to the official concerned of Bihar urban infrastructure development corporation limited (BUDCO) to complete the pending projects related to supply of drinking water in the city.