A civic official in Maharashtra's Aurangabad city on 9 December, who went to greet the new municipal commissioner after he took charge on Monday, ended up being fined a sum of Rs 5,000 as his welcome bouquet was wrapped in plastic.
Indian Administrative Service officer Astik Kumar Pandey took charge as Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) commissioner and head of the civic body's urban development department chief, Ramchandra Mahajan, was one of the many colleagues who came to wish him good luck.
Maharashtra Government Imposed Ban On Plastic
"The flower bouquet that Mahajan gave the commissioner had plastic wrapping at the base. Pandey asked his officials from the Solid Waste Management department to recover a fine of Rs 5,000 from Mahajan on the spot," said an official.
Pandey was unavailable for comment.
Government offices across the country have been making efforts to ban single-use plastic items from their premises after a call for their elimination was made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day speech this year.
In June last year, the Maharashtra government imposed a ban on a variety of plastic products, including single-use disposable items, and started penalising all those found using them.
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