manufacturing units in Maharashtra will not get any extension for exhausting their stock in view of the plastic ban, the Legislative Assembly was told on Monday. Replying to a query during question hour, environment minister Ramdas Kadam said plastic was harmful for the environment, and that there would be no relaxation granted in enforcing the ban on its manufacture and sale.

The government had on March 23 last year issued a notification banning manufacture, use, sale, distribution and storage of all plastic material, including one-time use bags, spoons, plates, PET and PETE bottles and thermocol items. When BJP’s Raj Purohit said the enforcement deadline be extended till the industrial units, which had invested heavily in manufacturing plastic exhausted their goods, Kadam said the government had taken the decision to ban plastic after much thought and study.