New Delhi. More than 200 ton of garbage, mainly single use plastic have been removed from the sea coasts during the first 20 days of the ongoing 75-day coastal clean-up campaign, Union Minister of State, Earth Sciences said.
Earlier on 5th July, the union government has launched a 75-day coastal clean-up campaign which is being carried out coastal clean-up campaign at Digha and Haldiya in West Bengal, Bhawanipatna in Odisha Paschim, Thiruvananthapuram and Manjeshwar in Kasaragod district of Kerala, AsmawatiGhat in Porbandar and Gir, Somnath in Gujarat, Mangalore, Udupi in Karnataka and Chatham for Shore Road in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The union minister has sought active cooperation of members of civil society to achieve the target to remove 1,500 tonnes of garbage, mainly single use plastic, from the sea coasts on “International Coastal Clean-up Day”.
The government also plans to conduct a massive clean-up drive on 17th September at 75 beaches across the country with 75 volunteers for every kilometer of the coastline as India celebrations of Amrit Mahotsav in the 75th year of the Independence.
It is the first-of-its-kind and longest running coastal clean-up campaign in the world. Dr. Singh was taking a review meeting of the campaign, the minister directed the officials to rope in NGOs, citizen groups, children and youth forums, corporates, non-profit organizations, consular staff as well as the municipal corporations of the coastal states to convert it into a Jan Andolan.
“Apart from removal of garbage from the sea coasts, activities like campaign pledge, nukkad natak, cycle rally for plastic se azadi, beach cleaning and plantation, sensitization of local communities about the coastal clean-up campaign were carried out in the last 20 days,” said Union Minister.
