Various civic agencies in the national Capital on Wednesday organised a plogging drive to create to awareness on the harmful effect of single-use plastic.
Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal complimented the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Municipal Corporations for implementing Swachhta Abhiyan and called upon to ensure segregation of waste into biodegradable and non biodegradable by providing separate dustbins and collection from each door step/household.
The LG was speaking at Swachhta, Fit India and Single Use Plastic-Free event of the Delhi Development Authority on the occassion of 150 th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi at Rohini Sports Complex.
Baijal asked to mobilise the society for non use of plastic and educate them from its hazardous effects. The LG said that real tribute to Gandhiji would be to follow his doctrines of Equality, Liberty and Dignity.
He further said that all departments/offices in Delhi have been instructed to ban use of single-use plastic. Stressing on the importance of sports for a healthy life, he asked the DDA to explore possibility of setting up Centre of Excellence in Sports with the help of experts where services of international coaches can be taken. Under "Fit India" campaign, Yoga camp/taekwondo was organised in all DDA sports complexes.
Baijal also released manuals of Mahatma Gandhi National Council of Rural Education. These manuals- Jal Shakti Campus and Jal Shakti Gram and Swachh Campus will help higher education institutions in developing strategies, action plans and implementation plans for water conservation on the campuses and in the village with which the campuses are engaged with.
Tarun Kapoor, VC DDA administered Swachhta pledge to the people present at the parks at Rohini. Senior Officers and officials of DDA and public in large numbers were in attendance.
Shri Vijender Gupta, MLA Rohini and other dignitaries were also present. On the occasion, a MoU was signed by the DDA with MCD and CSIR-IIP Dehradun for municipal dump reclamation and plastic waste conversion and setting up units/plants in Delhi. As per the MoU, the DDA will make available the land for setting up the plants.
All three Municipal Corporation and New Delhi Municipal Council will be responsible to provide the segregated plastic waste as a feed-stock to the plant, while the Indian Institute of Petroleum, CSIR, Dehradun will provide the technology and technical supervision, a senior official said.
Meanwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) also organized plog runs at around 80 places under its four zones that witnessed a large crowd of enthusiastic participants at most of the places.
"More than 20 thousand persons joined hand to generate awareness on single use plastic ban and collected plastic waste in large quantity which has either been given to the concessionaires or sent to the waste to energy plant for recycling and proper reuse," the official said.
The run was started from Sai Mandir Lodi Road and culminated at Dargah Nizamuudin. Apart from picking plastic waste awareness against single use plastic was also generated in Nizamuddin basti, Kalindi Kunj Ghat, Srinivas Puri, Lajpat Nagar, Jamia Hamdard and Tughlakabad extension.
North and East Corporation also organized a similar plogging drive. A senior EDMC official said that the objective of this drive was to create awareness and connect all citizens of East Delhi to participate in the Shramdan under 'MY10 KG Plastic' campaign by contributing in collection, proper disposal and to eliminate the single use plastic from their life to beat the plastic pollution. Citizens of East Delhi also bring their collected plastic waste and handed over to sanitation staff of Corporation, he said.
North Delhi Mayor Avtar Singh on Wednesday inaugurated a plastic collection centre at Fatehpuri Chowk and a plastic bottle crushing machine at Yudhveer Singh Park, Chandani Chowk, to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the officials said.