Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Saturday told the Telangana High Court that it had deployed 104 task force teams and 9,849 pesonnel to collect and dispose of polythene sheets that were used to wrap Ganesha idols.
A division bench of Chief Justice Raghaven-dra Singh and Justice Annireddy Abhishek Reddy had asked the GHMC and the Pollution Control Board last week to furnish details of the steps they had taken to collect and dispose of the plastic sheets.
The court was dealing a PIL filed by city resident Y.V. Murali Krishna, seeking a direction to the state government to restrain idol-makers from wrapping the idols with plastic, which was causing irreversible environmental damage. As the plastic sheets were already in use, the High Court directed the GHMC and PCB to collect the sheets and dispose them. It asked the GHMC to state how it had disposed of the plastic.
The PCB said that most of the plastic sheets was thicker than 50 micron, which is permissible.
The GHMC said it had deployed sanitation staff in addition to the task force teams to identify the manufacturers, suppliers, and sellers of polythene sheets.
The court adjourned the case to two weeks and asked the petitioner to give his rejoinder to the submissions of the GHMC and the PCB.
