Plastic ban thoughtless, like Sena's functioning: Congress

The Congress today dubbed the Maharashtra government's decision to ban single-use plastic as "thoughtless", 'like functioning of the Shiv Sena'.

As the ban was partially relaxed yesterday, those who had to pay fine in the first four days should be refunded, it said.

The ban came into effect on June 23. The BJP-Shiv Sena government yesterday allowed small retailers to offer customers plastic bags with above-50 microns thickness for three more months.

The ban was introduced by the environment ministry, headed by Sena minister Ramdas Kadam.

"The decision to ban plastic was thoughtless, like Shiv Sena's own functioning. The government has now relaxed the ban and allowed the use of plastic bags.

"So it should return money to those who were fined (in the first four days)," state Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant said in a statement.