Mumbai: The Maharashtra government wants to make the plastic ban in the state more stringent by cancelling shop licences if such material is found there, state Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam said Tuesday. He said that a primary level meeting had already been held to decide on how to go about implementing this new proposal.

“We have succeeded up to 60 per cent in imposing plastic ban across the state. Now we want to make it more stringent by cancelling the license of shops if they are found in possession of banned plastic material,” Mr Kadam said.

“A primary level meeting has already been held in Mumbai regarding cancellation of licence. We will take appropriate action next week on how it is going to be implemented,” the minister informed. He said that visible littering of plastic bags had come down since the ban, adding that 290 tonnes of banned plastic had been seized and fines of `2.53 crore collected in this period.

The minister said that the Union government was also impressed by the success achieved by the state in banning plastic and had sent a team to Mumbai to explore possibility of carrying out this ban on a wider scale.

“We have shared information with these (Central) officials. They were impressed with the manner in which Maharashtra implemented the ban. A detailed presentation was made for them regarding our policy,” Mr Kadam said. He added that there was “little possibility” of extension of time for concession given for the use of some types of plastic which the state plans to ban in a phased manner.

Mr Kadam said that 12 regional offices of the government had carried out raids to ensure effective implementation of the plastic ban.

Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray met Kadam Tuesday and the latter briefed him on the ban’s impact.