In a major crackdown aimed at making fruits and vegetable market plastic free, the district administration today conducted a surprise checking at the Maqsudan mandi under the Tandarust Punjab Mission and confiscated around 10 quintals of hazardous plastic bags from the market.A joint team of the district administration, Municipal Corporation Jalandhar (MCJ) and Mandi board led by Sub Divisional Magistrate Mr. Paramvir Singh, Joint Commissioner MCJ Mr. Rajiv Verma and District Mandi Board Mr. Varinder Khera today conducted the surprise check at mandi in early morning. During the checking the team seized around 10 quintals of plastic bags from the various places. The confiscated plastic bags were then loaded in a vehicle of the MCJ by the team.Divulging more details, Sub Divisional Magistrate and Joint Commissioner said that plastic play a major havoc with the health of the residents due to which the administration has decided to get rid of this menace. They said that the main aim of the campaign was to make sure that the plastic bags were banned in the fruits and vegetable market. They said that already a massive campaign was going on to make the fruit and vegetable sellers aware about bad effects of plastic.The Sub Divisional Magistrate and Joint Commissioner said that during the campaign the shopkeepers were being pursued to use Compostable Carry bags. They said that these environment friendly bags could be instrumental for eliminating the environmental problem being created by plastic bags. They said that the need of the hour was to ensure that only these bags were used by people so that hazard caused to the environment through the use of plastics could be checked.Both the officers said that these bio friendly bags do not cause any harm to environment or the human health adding that these bags decay easily in soil as compare to the plastic bags. They said that these bags were made of the potato and maize starch due to which they were durable and less hazardous. Both the officers further said that the campaign against plastic bags would be further intensified in the coming days.