Chennai: Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Thursday urged people to join a nation-wide campaign against single-use plastic and shun its use on a war footing beginning 2 October.
A clarion call the Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave during his speech on Independence Day, Gowda said, must be taken seriously along the same lines of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign.
Modi had urged citizens to take up a movement against plastic from 2 October (Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary). “…All organisations, offices, institutions, ministers, officers should take the initiative on a war footing to protect our environment,” Gowda said after inaugurating a boys hostel at the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology here.
The Chemicals and Fertiliser minister also said Tamilnadu has been considered “one of the top priorities of the central government. Whatever demands come from the State, would be possibly responded (to) by the centre in all areas of concern,” he said.
The minister said a technology centre would be established on the CIPET Chennai campus at a cost of Rs 88.25 crore besides Rs 4.35 crores allocated for machinery. Just like other States, Gowda said Tamilnadu should flourish and be one of the fastest growing States in the country.
On 15 August, PM Modi urged people to shun single-use plastic and encouraged use of jute and cloth bags to protect the environment. On World Environment Day last year, the government had announced its intention to phase out single-use plastic like straws and cups by 2022.