Maharashtra says no to plastic: Awareness drives to kick off ban | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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Maharashtra says no to plastic: Awareness drives to kick off ban

Hindustan Times | By
Jan 20, 2018 12:22 AM IST

State environment minister Ramdas Kadam, on Friday, held a meeting of senior officials asking them to focus more on creating awareness.

The state government is likely to start an awareness drive for the proposed plastic ban soon, to make it more effective.

The Maharashtra government intends to ban disposable plastic items across the state from March this year.(HT File/Representational Image)
The Maharashtra government intends to ban disposable plastic items across the state from March this year.(HT File/Representational Image)

State environment minister Ramdas Kadam, on Friday, held a meeting of senior officials asking them to focus more on creating awareness. They were also asked to prepare a road map for the same.

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“We want to reach out to the last person of the society before the ban comes in force. For this, we are focusing more on creating awareness. This will be done by means of advertising, making attractive slogans, street plays and more,” said Kadam.

The state government intends to ban all kinds of plastic bags irrespective of their thickness, disposable containers made of plastic and thermocol that are being used by hotels, plastic flags, flex material, banners and non-woven polypropylene bags, from March.

It also includes disposable plastic bowls, spoons and plates.

The environment minister has already conducted region-wise meetings, covering areas such as Konkan, Aurangabad, western Maharashtra, northern Maharashtra, Nagpur and Amravati — with senior officials of all the local bodies and public representatives as part of the preparations for implementing the ban.

Kadam said that he has got many good suggestions from the officers of the local bodies. “I have asked the department to check the practicality of these suggestions so that they can be implemented,” he added.

The state environment department is also drafting a notification which will be the official announcement of the ban, stating the items.The notification is likely to be issued by the end of this month.

The implementation of the ban would be a major challenge for the state that had already imposed a ban on plastic bags thinner than 50 microns in 2006 to prevent drains from clogging, in the aftermath of 2005 Mumbai deluge. However, in its order to the local bodies issued on January 2, 2018, the state environment department admitted that the impact of the previous ban was not visible.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Faisal is with the political team and covers state administration and state politics. He also covers NCP.

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