VIJAYAWADA: The ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ campaign organised at Ramalingeswara Nagar marking the World Environment Day on Tuesday evoked good response with scores of local residents turning up in the canal bund cleaning drive. The programme was conceived by Corporator of Division 14, Ummadisetti Bahadur, and it was executed in association with the Andhra Pradesh Environmental Education Centre and ‘The New Indian Express’ (TNIE).
Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) Commissioner J Nivas, who attended the event as chief guest, launched a signature campaign and administered the oath against use of plastic in daily life.
Later, Nivas participated in a rally taken out by students, highlighting the ill-effects of plastic on environment and collected the dumped plastic bags on the canal bund stretch. He lauded the efforts of TNIE in taking up the signature campaign and bund-cleaning programme.
‘’Despite our efforts to reduce use of plastic, many residents are still using polythene bags for household purposes, resulting in choking of irrigation canals with tonnes of plastic,’’ Nivas said. A study by the civic officials revealed that about 3,000 polythene bags were being used by every family in the city. Individuals should start using cloth or jute bags instead of polythene ones,” he added.
VMC Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) K Arjuna Rao called upon the individuals to take the responsibility of eradicating use of plastic in the city. VMC had imposed a ban on use of plastic bags (below 50 microns) and awareness sessions were being conducted to encourage the residents to develop the habit of planting saplings as part of environment protection, he added.
Stating that women were found to be using plastic more than men, Social Forestry District Forest Officer (DFO) V Prabhakar appealed to them to go for biodegradable bags as clearing the drains clogged with plastic bags had turned into a gigantic task for civic officials. AP Environmental Education Centre Director Kakarla Venkata Ratnam, member Thota Naga Seshu and VMC Assistant Medical Officer Health Iqbal Hussain were present.