Chennai, Apr 6 (IANS): The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has constituted a 19-member committee led by its Commissioner Gagan Singh Bedi for a massive drive against the use of banned plastic items.

In a statement, the GCC on Wednesday said that it had inspected 17,582 commercial establishments from March 20 to April 4 and seized 6.4 tonnes of banned plastic items.

The group is now to take this forward to implement the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016 and act against those involved in using banned plastics.

Besides the Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner, the committee will have deputy commissioners, a joint commissioner of police, city health officer, city revenue officer, superintending engineer of the solid waste management department, assistant director of the fisheries department, regional director of collegiate education and regional director of food safety department.

The group will be creating major awareness and is planning to rope in movie and television stars as brand ambassadors on a voluntary basis to spread the awareness.

Sources in the GCC told IANS that short films under one-minute duration will be made for which students from the journalism and media studies departments have been roped in on a voluntary basis. The GCC is trying to bring in reputed movie stars and sources said that a top Tamil movie star will be a part of the awareness campaign.