Bhubaneswar: East Coast Railway (ECoR) has organised a seminar on Environmental Pollution and Plastic-Free Nation at Rail Sadan here Tuesday.
Addressing the seminar, ECoR general manager (GM) Vidya Bhushan stressed upon avoiding single-use plastic on railway premises, trains, residential areas and railway establishments and also to encourage passengers, vendors, railwaymen, rail users to avoid use of single-use plastic products and to use reusable bags to reduce plastic usages.
Forest and Environment Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha said, “The state government has decided to ban single-use plastic from October 2 and we are prepared to achieve the target in our railway jurisdiction.”
Joining the seminar, Odisha Environmental Society secretary and Odisha Vigyan O’ Parivesh Congress convener Jayakrushna Panigrahi said that plastic materials affect the environment because these are not degradable and are not easy to recycle. They are also harmful to human health. Massive awareness needs to be created to educate common people to avoid its use.
Vidya Bhushan administered oath on Swachhata to the employees at Bhubaneswar Railway Auditorium and asked them to devote 100 hours every year towards cleanliness.
Each employee, Bhusan said, should begin cleanliness with oneself, one’s family, one’s own area and workplace and to convince 100 people to devote 100 hours every year towards cleanliness to fulfil the dream of Mahatma Gandhi for a neat and clean nation.
The ECoR has started the Swachhata Pakhwada in a big way giving special focus on cleanliness at railway station premises, trains, offices, workshops, maintenance depots, Railway Hospitals and Railway residential areas to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Father of the Nation – Mahatma Gandhi.