If all goes according to the BMC's latest PR-friendly plan, Plastic Patrol Squads will soon sweep through our streets, fining citizens who still have the temerity to carry plastic bags after June 23. It would be amusing if this wasn't a depressing thought, that the BMC can fund squads to examine what we're carrying, but fail to divert its army of personnel towards fixing parts of the city that continue to crumble around us.

No one is supposed to have a problem with this, of course, because being eco-friendly is now fashionable. It makes the BMC look as if it cares about the environment, even as the government managing it is in the process of systematically eroding our green cover by handing over parks and protected zones to private builders. It's good for public relations though, this farcical creation of patrols to police us.