Guwahati, Oct 27 (HS): Assam Governor Prof.Jagdish Mukhi unveiled ‘Ek diya Prakriti Ke Naam’ at Digholi Pukhuri in the city saturday night.
It may be mentioned that the diya that has the size of 8 feet in diameter and 2 feet in height has been lit on the eve of diwali to generate mass awareness regarding the menace of single-use plastic.
Speaking on the occasion, Governor Prof. Mukhi said that single use plastics have detrimental effect on the lives of men and animals and thus there is an urgent need to discard single-use plastic. Environmental pollution caused by single-use plastic has become one of the most pressing environmental issues Therefore appropriate steps needs to be taken to deal with pollution triggered by rapid production of single-use plastics. He also observed that though the shelf life of plastic is very minimal, degradation of the same requires more than 1000 years. Since single-use plastics have hazardous effects on the land and marine creatures, to illuminate the inherent spirit of diwali that is victory of good over evil one needs to take a pledge to stop single-use plastic to enable everybody on the earth to relish its beauty.
The Governor also informed that the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has embarked upon a mission for utilizing waste plastic in a big way in encouraging the use of waste plastic in highway construction. He also said that the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in order to use environmental waste and environment-friendly technology have found out environmental friendly disposal of waste plastic and making border roads with the help of the discarded plastics. Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura have been identified for construction using waste plastic material.
Considering the abundance of bamboo, Prof. Mukhi said that there should be adequate value addition to the use of bamboo so that instead of single-use plastic bamboo can adequately be used to manufacture bags and other essential commodities.
Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi in initiating a tirade against single- use plastic in the nation, Governor Prof. Mukhi said that everybody will have to sincerely contribute to the mission of plastic free country.
It may be noted that the ‘Ek diya Prakriti Ke Naam’ is joint initiative of TIME8 , Max Cement, Kamrup(M) Administration and Assam Tourism which aims to serve Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to ban single-use plastic from India by 2022.
The function was attended by the Deputy Commissioner kamrup (M) Biswajit Pegu, Chairman of Max Cement Praveen Agarwal, journalist Pranoy Bordoloi, Environmentalist Anup Jyoti Kashyap, actor Jatin Bora along with a host of other dignitaries.
