A roadmap to combat the growing menace of environmental pollution was discussed in presence of more than 300 students of various schools in a seminar on Environmental Pollution at the Malda Town Hall organised by the district administration. The annual conference on District Environment Plan (DEP) of Malda district was also part of the event.
Different issues of pollution were discussed in detail. Some school students also staged a short play entitled “Palao Pollution (Go away pollution).”
Nitin Singhania, District Magistrate Malda, said: “The inclusion of school goers in the programme is itself an awareness drive. If we can grow sensitivity on environmental issues among future citizens, we can take an effective stride forward to tackle this problem. We are taking different steps to fight environmental pollution in our district like installing solid waste management plants in 44 Gram Panchayats and plastic waste management plants in 5 GPs.”
Using slide shows, it was shown that almost 210 metric tonne (MT) of solid waste is generated per day in the English Bazar Municipality area, 20 MT in Old Malda Municipality and 150 MT in rural areas. As per strategy and policy for waste management, focus is to avoid, reuse, recycle, recover and dispose the waste. The major action points to be taken are - 100 per cent collection of solid and plastic wastes; no waste should be burnt; to ensure that ongoing constructions are covered to prevent dust and cement from blowing in the air; conserve water effectively and to create a sustainable economy.
Dignitaries like Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury, Chairman EBM, Mridul Haldar ADM (Development), Prashanta Debnath DSP (headquarters), Dipanjana Maulik environment expert and other administrative officials with Paschim Banga Vigyan Mancha representatives were present on the occasion.