Students participated with enthusiasm in the debate held in the first session of the Health First event hosted by The Pioneer, Dehradun edition at Raj Bhawan, here on Monday.
A total of 32 students from various institutions participated in the debate held on the topic — “Should the Uttarakhand Government completely ban production, sale and distribution of polythene as done in neighbouring Himachal PradeshIJ”
Ajit Sinha, Managing Director, The Pioneer, Dehradun edition, Aloke Tirtha Bhowmick, Head of department of Art and Media, Doon School, Kiran Sood, Head of department of Political Science, MKP (PG) College, Ajay Swaroop, Marketing head, DIT, Dehradun, Ajay Saxena, DAV (PG) College Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and senior journalist Jaskiran Chopra were the jury members of the competition.
The competition began with the five- minute speech by each of the participants. Three minutes were kept for rebuttal rounds.
Students of Uttaranchal Ayurvedic College, SGRR (PG) College, Doon Business School, Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust (HIHT), Sardar Bhagwan Singh Post-Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Research and some other colleges had participated in the event.
Most of the participants who spoke in favour of the motion on the ban on production, sale and distribution of polythene bags by the State Government highlighted the ill- effects the rampant use of polythene bags leaves on the environment. They observed that the Government should strictly enforce the relevant law and penalise offenders to at least mitigate the adverse impact of the continuing use of polythene bags on the environment. If things drag on this way with the law-enforcers not exerting themselves in full to stamp out the menace it would culminate in cataclysmic upheaval in the environment.
Some invoked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pledge on Clean India to buttress their points. The mission the PM is embodying would be fulfilled if everyone of us contributes, they said. Public campaign on the ill-effects involving the use of polythene bags should be launched from local to the global level to conserve the environment, they opined.
Those speaking against the motion said rather than banning the use of polythene bags outright, the Government should go for raising awareness on the matter. Outright ban often proves to be a fiasco. It is better to motivate them for reusing and recycling the polythene bags.
large number of youth would be left unemployed if the industries stop producing polythene bags in one go. As the United States observed November 15 as the Recycling Day we should also emulate them to encourage recycling, they pointed out.
It should be mentioned here that each participant, in addition to the speeches, had replied to questions raised by a board of jury as well as other participants and the audience.
The second session of the event, The Pioneer lecture on public health on the subject of tropical diseases was inaugurated in the evening by State Urban Development Minister Pritam Singh Panwar along with Parliamentary Secretary Rajkumar, Indian Medical Association Uttarakhand chapter head Dr Kuldeep Dutta, Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya Vice-Chancellor Prof Surendra Kumar and The Pioneer, Dehradun edition Managing Director Ajit Sinha.