The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation commissioner has ordered intensified action against plastic use at pan stalls, illegal industrial drainage connections and roadside parking, while directing officials to improve enforcement across the city’s markets and public toilets.
The directions were issued during the civic body’s weekly review meeting, where the commissioner expressed concern over the increasing use of plastic in Ahmedabad. Officials were instructed to conduct intensive inspections at pan stalls, seize plastic items and impose fines on violators.
The enforcement order comes against a recurring problem in which inspections initially produce visible results but lose effectiveness after a short period, according to the report. The commissioner’s directions therefore cover repeated monitoring as well as immediate action against establishments found using plastic.
Zonal officers were also told to remove illegal industrial connections to municipal drainage lines with immediate effect. The commissioner warned that action would be taken if such connections were not removed promptly. The order places responsibility on zonal officials to identify and eliminate the unauthorised links.
Roadside parking was another focus of the meeting. The commissioner directed officials to impose high penalties on motorists who park indiscriminately on roads. Officials were asked to mark designated parking areas with yellow lines at locations including CG Road. The direction follows an earlier instruction from the standing committee to install boards at such locations, but the report said parking enforcement has remained inadequate despite repeated efforts by civic officials and office-bearers.
The meeting also addressed the use of municipal vegetable markets. The commissioner noted that markets built at a cost of crores of rupees were lying vacant while vendors continued to operate from roads using carts and temporary stalls. Officials were instructed to prepare zone-wise lists of such vendors and blacklist those who do not use the designated markets, preventing them from being allotted stalls in the future. Vacant stalls in vegetable markets were to be allotted to fruit sellers.
Attendance monitoring for workers supplied by resident welfare association organisations to the municipal corporation’s solid waste, health and other departments was also tightened. Their attendance must now be entered into the civic body’s 311 application, with daily reports submitted to the administration.
Public toilet maintenance was included in the commissioner’s cleanliness review. The commissioner said the condition of public toilets was an indicator of the city’s cleanliness and announced plans to conduct surprise checks during morning rounds. The commissioner also said that public toilets would be personally used during these inspections to assess their actual condition.
The directions bring several routine civic enforcement challenges under one review: plastic waste, unauthorised drainage connections, parking, street vending, workforce attendance and public sanitation. The report did not specify the revised fine amounts, the number of inspections planned or a deadline for completing the enforcement actions.
