Chandigarh says goodbye to poly bags

While

Sector 17

plaza was yet to get over the grand new year celebrations which happened last night, another gala function was organized on Tuesday afternoon to mark the start of 2019. The event carried a message, ‘say no to poly bags’. With UT’s department of environment urging people to give up single use polythene bags, they are also looking to make 2019 a year of change.
Held in collaboration with NGO

Yuvsatta

, the event had a large participation form Chandigarh trader’s association, Sector 17 and progressive trader’s welfare association of Sector 17. Titled, ‘Chandigarh Says Good-bye Poly Bags’, the campaign had Debendra Dalai, director of environment department as main speaker. In presence of environmentalists and other prominent people, the event addressed the burning issue of plastic which is lethal for environment. Dalai shared that despite

UT administration

banning polythene bags since 2008, one can easily see it’s being used. “It poses a serious risk to the general health of the population in both short-term and long-term, and leads to continuous deterioration of the environment, inflicting irreversible adverse impact on all forms of life.”
A street play ‘Poly-Raja’ by volunteers of Yuvsatta was also staged on the occasion. And over 500 cloth bags were distributed free to the public to promote the initiative. Later Pramod Sharma, coordinator of Yuvsatta shared that strict implementation of poly-bags is only a beginning and their NGO will strive more for complete ban on single use plastic items in the city.”