By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 30 Jan: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami today called for a campaign with a better action plan for a plastic-free Uttarakhand, cleanliness, and the Fit India Movement. He also stressed that special efforts be made towards public awareness and participation. These instructions were issued by CM Dhami to the officials during a virtual meeting he chaired today from Uttarakhand Sadan, New Delhi. It may be recalled that Dhami is touring Delhi to campaign for the BJP in Delhi Assembly elections.
Dhami emphasised that the Plastic-Free Uttarakhand campaign be run on a more extensive level. He observed that Uttarakhand is important for its natural beauty, tourism, and biodiversity. Collective efforts are needed to conserve the environment and biodiversity. Schools, colleges, non-governmental institutions, and business organisations should be involved in making this campaign successful. He emphasised that greater public participation is crucial for the success of any campaign. The CM also directed officials to make arrangements for QR codes on plastic bottles at religious and tourist places like Kedarnath Dham to aid in plastic waste management. He further directed officials to make more effective efforts towards cleanliness to establish high standards of cleanliness in the state and provide a healthy environment for the people. Dhami insisted that door-to-door garbage collection should be ensured 100 percent in all the urban areas and that people should be made more aware of segregating wet and dry garbage. The cleanliness system should be strengthened further in urban and rural areas.
The CM stated that a meeting will be held with officials elected in the civic elections soon after their oath-taking to expedite work in the field of cleanliness in the state. The work on legacy waste should be completed soon in all municipal corporations. Officials were also directed by him to ensure that only clean water is released from the state into the Ganga River, with special attention to cleanliness in the tributaries of the Ganga. He added that. in the Swachhata Survey, arrangements should be made to declare standards of cleanliness in rural areas as well, similar to civic bodies. Special attention should be paid to cleanliness during the National Games.
The Chief Minister directed efforts to make the Fit India Movement more effective in the state. Yoga and exercise activities should be conducted daily in educational institutions. He stressed that the work should be done more effectively on the state government’s scheme of open gyms at the Gram Panchayat level. A wide-scale campaign should be run under Fit India. Regular awareness camps should be organised by the Health Department for a healthy Uttarakhand. Dhami directed that proper arrangements be ensured for health checkups of the people from time to time. Under the Fit India Movement, people should be motivated for a balanced diet. Healthy diet and awareness camps should also be organised to make people aware of the ill effects of junk food. He also insisted that local products of the state should be promoted. An intensive campaign should be run across the state to stop adulteration, and strict action should be taken against adulterators.
Chief Secretary Radha Raturi, Secretaries Shailesh Bagoli, Nitesh Jha, Ravinath Raman, Chandresh Yadav, Vinay Shankar Pandey, R Rajesh Kumar. Additional Secretary Vijay Jogdande, Director, Urban Development, Nitika Khandelwal, and Additional Director Lalit Narayan Mishra were among those present on this occasion.
