Bombay HC refuses to relax thermocol ban for Ganesh mandaps
July 13, 2018  14:51
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The Bombay high court today declined to relax the ban on sale of decoration items made of thermocol for use in the forthcoming Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Maharashtra.   

A division bench of Justices A S Oka and Riyaz Chagla dismissed a petition filed by the Thermocol Fabricators and Decoration Association, seeking relaxation of the ban only for this year's Ganesh festival to be celebrated in September.   

The manufacture and use of a large number of plastic and thermocol items have been banned in Maharashtra.   

The petition claimed the association's members would suffer huge financial losses if decoration material made of thermocol is not permitted to be sold in the market.   

The association also submitted an undertaking stating they will themselves dispose of the material.   The state government opposed the petition and said the last day to dispose of the banned items was June 23.   

Despite this, the petitioner (the association) did not dispose of their material and instead kept it as it is and is now seeking relaxation, it argued. 

The HC said it cannot ignore the government's arguments, made during a hearing on petitions challenging the plastic and thermocol ban, that 1,200 tonnes of plastic waste is generated each day and there is no proper scientific provision for its disposal.
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