Delhi has finally approved a ban on plastic bags use, storage, manufacture and sales.

Delhi has finally approved a ban on the use, storage, manufacture and sale of plastic bags in the city.

After a false start three years ago, the Delhi Cabinet has approved the imposition of a blanket ban on plastic bags, which is now more comprehensive and better thought out than the initial notification issued in January 2009.

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit told Times of India that the revised prohibition will be far stricter than earlier legislation.

"There will be no leniency in implementing the blanket ban and crackdown on violators will be more aggressive this time," she claimed.

The government is due to issue a notification on the ban soon, giving the city's businesses and residents one year from that date to fully implement the new rules.

Past attempts failed to make any impact on the city's plastic bag use due to poor implementation and too many loopholes in the law, however these are now reported to have been ironed out.

The ban now includes all plastic bags, aside from those used under the Bio-Medical Waste Management and Handling Rules of 1998.

A senior government official told the newspaper that "with plastic bags proliferating in the city," the earlier action taken by authorities "was just not sufficient".

Several small units manufacturing cloth and paper bags have begun to blossom in Delhi, as they attempt to fill the gap left by plastic bags.

Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders, said that small shopkeepers will need to be able to find more alternative shopping bag solutions, however "big brand and retail stores still find it easy to use paper bags due to their volume of sales and price of products".

An official added that the public must go back to their old shopping methods, rather than relying on plastic bags.

"People were used to carrying their own bags to the market. Many had cloth bags or big baskets that were a permanent fixture in each household," they explained.