It may take months before the much-publicised Margao Municipal Council's ban on sale of plastic carry bags in the city finally comes into effect. For, the Civic body on Saturday began an arduous job of stamping the plastic carry bags in possession with individual shop owners. The objective behind the stamping the plastic bags with the Civic seal is to ensure the owners do not bring in fresh stocks of bags after the current stock is over. This means, that the traders will have to compulsorily stop sale of plastic bags once these stamped bags are sold out. And, in the process, it may take months before the ban on sale of plastic finally comes into force. For, some of the traders have in their shelves plastic bags worth thousands of rupees and unless the present stock of plastic bags are disposed off, the question of ban coming into effect immediately will not arise. Says Margao Municipal Chief Officer, N D Agrawal: "Yes, it may take months before the ban comes into effect, but the Civic body has made a beginning to implement the ban on plastic bags'. Agrawal said the ban would have been implemented immediately had the government worked out a compensation package for the traders in lieu of destroying the plastic bags in their shelves. "The Civic body has no intention to put the traders to monetary loss. That's the reason why the Council has decided to go slow on the ban', he added.