B'lore: Students to make Lalbagh plastic-free

Bangalore, Apr 02: City's schoolchildren will guard all entrance points of Lalbagh to check the bags of visitors and replace the plastic ones with cloth bags.The students will also perform street plays and even help in cleaning the garden. This initiative is a part of a month-long campaign undertaken by Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and Department of Horticulture to make Lalbagh plastic-free.

"Though this is not the first initiative to prohibit the use of plastics inside Lalbagh we are hopeful that people would pay heed to children's advice," said H C Sharat Chandra, KSPCB chairman. There are only 20 guards to monitor the 240-acre Lalbagh.

While around 3,000 visitors come to Lalbagh, the number increases to 8,000 on weekends and touches around 30,000 on special occasions. Since 2002, the authorities have made efforts to enforce 'No to plastic bags' campaign for Lalbagh, through various initiatives but have not been very successful.

When asked what would be the next step if this programme too fails G S Vasanth Kumar, horticulture directorate, replied, "We will start fining visitors from April 15 onwards." The fine will start from Rs 50 to Rs 500.

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