On World Environment Day, CM Rekha Gupta urges people to eliminate plastic use from lifestyle

New Delhi: Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Thursday on the occasion of World Environment Day urged people to wean away plastic use from their lifestyle, warning of its harmful impact on health and the nature. Speaking at ‘One Nation, One Mission: End Plastic Pollution’ at Bharat Mandapam, she also said that the Delhi government invites technologies and innovations to make the city clean and address various pollution related problems. “We need to free our lifestyle from plastic use. We have included plastic in our every day life and now the situation is such that even our blood has plastic particles which has become the cause of cancer and other diseases,” Gupta said.

She called upon people to reflect on the growing dependence on plastic, which she said was “choking human life”. Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena speaking at the event said that various agencies in the national Capital have collectively planted over 2.10 crore saplings in the city. He said that jointly with the Delhi CM, he planted 10,000 bamboo saplings on Okhla landfill site while as many saplings have already been planted on the Bhalswa landfil.

The L-G said efforts were also underway to restore the ecosystem of the Yamuna flood plains through the creation of 30 wetlands and water bodies, where seven lakh saplings have been planted so far. Saxena further lauded the Delhi government’s initiatives to tackle pollution and said that the dust mitigation plan notified by the chief minister on Wednesday was a big step to address pollution in the city. The three garbage mountains in Delhi are also being speedily removed with 75 lakh metric ton of waste disposed off so far, he added. The number of trommel machines deployed for the task has increased from 12 to 75, raising the waste disposal capacity from 7,000 ton per day to 25,000 ton per day now, he said.