Chandigarh to become plastic free from next year.

Chandigarh, Dec 8 (UNI) Chandigarh will be made plastic free from February 1, next year, Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Union Territory Administrator General (Retd.) S F Rodrigues announced today.

Addressing a workshop on 'Smoke Free Cities - Learning form Chandigarh's Experience', he said there was a need for mass movement in generating awareness among the people in this regard. Chandigarh had already been declared smoke free from July 1 this year.

The workshop was organised by Chandigarh Administration in partnership with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, World Health Organisation and Burning Brain Society.

He said that making Chandigarh a smoke free zone was an initiative taken for improving the environment and ecology of the region. It needed a constant monitoring to achieve the desired goals.

He said that implementation of the smoke free plan for the city must be ensured as both active and passive smoking were dangerous.

General Rodrigues said that as part of the strategy for improving environment there is a plan of introducing 100 small electric buses for internal routes, equipping all CTU buses with CNG pollution-free devices and introducing 2000 electric motor rickshaws in the near future.

He cautioned against the threats of global warming and ecological imbalances caused by various factors. He appealed to people to extend their cooperation in improving the quality of life of people in the city.

UNI