Their denial to safety fence Manufacturers pay fine is leading to law and order problems, due to which plastic ban cannot be implemented effectively. Hence, it has been decided to reduce the fine initially," said a senior civic official. Concerned over the fact that people will not pay a huge fine, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to reduce the minimum penalty from Rs 5,000 to only Rs 200. After its approval, the new rates will be applicable after June 23," said the official.In a relief to Mumbaikars, they might not have to shell out a steep penalty for using banned plastic after June 23. A third-time offender will be fined Rs 25,000 and three months imprisonment.The government later decided to give extension up to June 23 to allow people disposing the banned plastic items.
However, according to civic officials, the BMC is facing problems in collecting fine from small vendors and hawkers.For this, the BMC has classified vendors into four categories – hawkers and small vendors; grocery goods and small retailers; milk, curd, fruit juice, tea-coffee sellers and restaurants, shops in malls etc – according to their profession.."As people are prone to use plastic bags in large numbers, it will create dispute if they are fined Rs 5,000 from the beginning only.The state government has declared a fine of Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively for first and second time offence. Hence it has been decided to reduce the fine.Sources however revealed that the Shiv Sena, which is the ruling party in the BMC, is worried that reduction in penalty may create confusion over implementation of the ban.
The plastic ban will come into force from Friday, June 23.. A third-time offender will be fined Rs 25,000 and sentenced to imprisonment for three months.The state government has declared a fine of Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively, for a first-time and second-time offender. "The plastic ban has been announced statewide and the penalty is also uniform throughout the state. Hence, it was better to leave the matter to the state government to decide on the fine," said one of the party corporators. With only BMC reducing fines, utter commotion would have been created over implementation of the ban in other parts. In a dramatic move, the law committee of the Brihanmumbai Mun-icipal Corporation (BMC) has rejected the proposal to reduce the fine amount to Rs 200, stating that the civic body has no powers to do so. Hence, we decided to reject the proposal.