New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on November 7 flagged off special plogging awareness drive rally in Delhi Cantonment as part of Swachhta Pakhwada to create awareness against single use plastic in the country.
He participated in the event by picking waste material from the area. More than 3,000 people including school children participated in the plogging and collected sizeable single use plastic waste.
Singh said Mahatma Gandhi had equated spitting with crime. He said that Mahatma Gandhi raised an army of satyagrahis, the same way Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the army swachhagrahis. In a very short span of time Swachh Bharat has become a mission. More than 700 districts in the country have become Open Defecation Free (ODF). Ten crore sixty lakh toilets have been made in the country. Now, it is the turn of reducing the single use plastic. Singh appealed, “Let us create an awareness against the use of single use plastic.”
He appreciated nukkad natak, performed by a local theatre group. He administered Swachhta pledge to the people present at the event.
Ministry of Defence is organising a massive plogging programme at more than 400 locations throughout the country. All the three services, Indian Coast Guard, Defence Public Sector Undertakings, Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), Cantonment boards, National Cadet Corps (NCC), Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and various other defence establishments at different locations organised similar such events throughout the country.
The Army cleaned up waste at 17 locations across the country right from Siachen to Jaisalmer and Bhuj to Bairengte (Mizoram). Similarly, Indian Navy cleaned up waste at 30 locations from Mumbai to Karwar (Karnataka) and Kolkata to Vishakapatnam. Indian Air Force also cleaned up waste at 150 locations from Hindon to Upper Shillong (Meghalaya) and Nagpur to Trivandrum. Apart from the three services, ICG did the exercise in its 47 locations, Cantonment Boards 62 locations, NCC 18 locations, Sainik Schools 31 locations, BRO 18 locations, Comptroller General of Defence Accounts 20 locations across the country.
The aim of this massive exercise is to raise awareness in the society to collect plastic waste and make the surroundings clean. The slogan for this event is ‘Plastic Se Raksha – Swachhata Hi Suraksha’.
