Plastic water bottles less than one litre banned from public meetings: Jai Ram

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday said that plastic water bottles less than one-litre capacity would be banned in public meetings in Himachal Pradesh and tourists

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday said that plastic water bottles less than one-litre capacity would be banned in public meetings in Himachal Pradesh and tourists visiting the state must be sensitised to use jute or paper bags instead of polythene bags.

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While presiding over state-level World Environment Day function of the department of science environment and technology,

CM said that this day was the “people’s day” for doing their bit to take care of the Earth and it should not be a ceremonial occasion, but something concrete must come out from this. He said that polythene was rampantly polluting the water bodies, harming marine life and posing a threat to human health and Himachal Pradesh became the first state in the country to ban the use of polythene bags.

He said that the state government has also imposed a complete ban on the use of thermocol cutlery as it was also non-biodegradable and causing harm to the environment and has promoted the use of ‘pattals’ and ‘dona’ made of leaves. The state government has also launched a polythene buyback scheme under which polythene was being purchased from the people at the rate of ₹75 per kilogram.

The main objective of this scheme was to ensure that the polythene does not get into the environment and could be recycled and reused. He said that the used polythene was being utilised for the metalling of roads.

CM said that polythene was also one of the major causes of pollution of water resources and the choking of water supply.

He said that the water crisis in Shimla town during the summer of 2018 was due to the pollution and degradation of water catchment areas, rivers, and water bodies supplying water to the town.

Jai Ram Thakur said that Himachal Pradesh is rich in biodiversity as it houses 5,721 species of fauna and about 3,295 species of flora, which comes to about seven percent of the biodiversity of the country. He said that the state government was committed to the conservation of our rich biodiversity and as many as 3,871 Biodiversity Management Committees have been constituted in the state at the panchayat level.

Cm presented ‘Pattal Making Machines’ to two self-help groups and distributed Environment Leadership Awards 2019-20 to the winners.