Monday, 28 March 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) has kickstarted the plastic-free Dehradun campaign with the aim to reach about 25,000 students and their parents to raise awareness against the usage of single-use plastics. The corporation started this campaign to increase citizen’s participation under Swachch Survekshan 2022. The officials said that this campaign, which will be run across the city till April 30, will mainly focus on raising awareness among locals about segregation of garbage, adopting composting at the domestic level and the basic etiquettes one must follow to keep the city clean. Students of over 100 schools, marked by the MCD, will also participate in the campaign and reach about 25,000 students and their parents. Officials informed that as part of the campaign, each school will set up a plastic bank on its premises where the plastic waste collected by the students will be segregated. Every school will appoint a teacher or senior employee as a plastic warrior. The plastic warrior will appoint a monitor in every class of the school, who will be called plastic guard. The entire campaign in every school will be supervised by a Plastic Sanrakshak, who will be the school principal.The Social Development for Communities (SDC) Foundation will also assist MCD in the campaign. Mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ said that this campaign is inspired by the nationwide call on plastic pollution by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who speaks about maintaining cleanliness on a community basis. “The PM’s commitment and clear thinking towards making the country plastic-free helped us to set our objectives. Our plastic-free campaign is based on the central government’s missions like Solid and Plastic Waste Rules-2016 and AMRUT-2.0. I am sure this initiative will encourage many to prevent the usage of single-use plastics in the city. Such initiatives will also help the city to get into the top 50 cleanest cities in SS22,” he said.The corporation has also recently issued an order to the sanitation team to ensure single-use plastics are not being produced, sold, purchased or used in any wards of the city as a part of the phased elimination of the single-use plastic programme. The mayor said that usage of single-use plastics has certainly increased due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years but these new initiatives along with the association of locals will soon make the city Plastic-free.
