Deadline over: Rs 1.5 crore fines, 60 tons plastic collected in a day in Maharashtra

MUMBAI: As the warm-up enforcement of plastic ban in the state ended on Sunday, September 30, the state government immediately got cracking full throttle. On Monday, more than 60 tonnes of plastic was seized and nearly Rs 1.5 crore was collected in fines from ban violators across the state.
Officials of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), along with police and civic officials, raided retailers, distributors and manufacturers across major cities.The deadline for manufacturers to put in place buyback systems and recycling solutions ended on Sunday.

In Mumbai alone, over 14 tons of plastic was seized. In Pune, over 80 shops and seven godowns were raided and around 9 tons of plastic that did not have print and date lines was seized while in Solapur, the fine recovered was over Rs 9lakh, said an MPCB official.
The government on Monday wrote to all police commissionerates in the state, directing them to take action against plastic ban violators—from shopowners to manufacturers to individuals. Senior officials said that they had told penalising agencies to go soft on people and shops until they warm up to the idea of the ban, which was till September 30.
“Now, the government will go the whole hog after violators. Raids will be conducted and notices will
be sent to manufacturers for non-compliance of the ban and its requirements. So far, only corporations and councils were allowed to fine shops that were using plastic. But with the limited civic staff, that action too would fizzle out. Now, we have asked the police to get into it so that the ban implementation gets an impe
tus. We have also told the police to register FIRs wherever they feel necessary, especially in case of repeat offenders,” said an official.
The Maharashtra Plastic and Thermocol Products (Manufacture, Usage, Sale, Transport, Handling and Storage) Notification, 2018, which was issued on March 23, empowered tourism police, police inspectors and sub-inspectors to take action in their jurisdiction. The state government has banned plastic carry bags irrespective of their thickness, single-use thermocol and plastic cutlery. Violators face stringent fines ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000 and three-month jail term.