Chennai, June 5: Following in the footprints of Maharashtra state, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to implement plastic ban to save the environment. According to a news report in The Hindu, in the ongoing state assembly session, CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami took a suo motto over the danger of plastic to the environment and tabled a proposal that storage, usage, and manufacturing of prohibited plastic will not be allowed henceforth across the state. The ban will come into effect from January 2019 onwards.

He further added that the move is based on the recommendations of an expert panel constituted by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in this regard earlier. However, the ban has excluded plastic pouches for milk , curd, ghee, oil and medical utilities.

In Maharashtra, a blanket ban on plastic has been implemented recently after the demand placed by Yuva Sena Chief and son of Uddhav-- Aditya Thackeray. Sena leader and cabinet minister Ramdas Kadam also constituted a committee for recommendations from different sectors to make the ban successful.

The report on the plastic ban in Tamil Nadu state highlights that primarily, the ban has been put on plastic bags and other cutlery items made of plastic like plates, cups and other small sachets usually used for packaging  drinking water. The reason behind the ban, as the CM pointed out, was that use of plastic resulted in blockage in the drain, causing flooding and contamination of groundwater bodies.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 05, 2018 03:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).