The draft rules on plastic waste propose fines on street vendors for providing substandard plastic carry bags among a slew of other stringent measures to tackle the issue.

These are part of the government's overall plan to come out with new rules for all kinds of waste including municipal waste, e-waste, bio-medical waste and plastic waste.

A separate set of draft rules deal with utilisation of fly ash within 100 km from coal or lignite-based thermal power plants.

Making the draft rules public on its website, the environment ministry has sought opinion from experts and others by July 31. After getting views and suggestions from stakeholders, the ministry will notify the new rules for managing all kinds of waste not only in metropolitan cities and state capitals but also in all 7,935 towns across the country.

"The environment ministry will also come out with rules for 'sand mining' which will be applied across the country. It is important to follow sustainable mining practices for sand. We will also take help of technology like satellite mapping system while identifying the mining zones," said Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday.

As far as air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR) is concerned, the Centre will hold a review meeting with governments of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan in second week of July and subsequently come out with medium and long-term plans. The review meeting will take stock of the situation in the wake of actions taken during the three-month short-term plan that was finalized in April.

"We will do it any day before the beginning of the Monsoon session of Parliament on July 21," said Javadekar while appealing to the general public, experts, NGOs and other stakeholders to express their views on draft waste management rules.

All the draft rules have specified certain 'dos' and 'don'ts' for waste generators (both domestic and commercial), manufacturers, producers, consumers, collection centres, dealers, dismantlers and recyclers.

Though the government currently has rules to manage such wastes, idea of this move is to bring clarity on many issues so that the urban local bodies can implement them as per their bye-laws. The proposed rules also clearly define terms and conditions that were previously left ambiguous.

Specifying responsibilities for managing e-waste, the rules say that the producers can take the responsibility of e-waste management either individually or collectively. They will be expected to provide contact details such as address, telephone numbers or helpline numbers of collection centres to consumers so as to facilitate return of used electrical and electronic equipment.

In case of plastic waste, the draft norms would apply to waste generator, urban local body, gram panchayat, manufacturer and producer. These rules, however, will not apply to the export-oriented units or units in special economic zones, and those engaged in packaging of 'gutka', tobacco and pan masala and also to any surplus or rejects, left over products and alike.

The draft plastic waste management rules 2015 state that street vendors would be "liable for paying fines for selling or providing sub-standards plastic carry bags or commodities wrapped/packed in sub-standard plastic sheets".