All Villages of Uttarakhand will be Free from Plastic Waste | 12 May 2023

Why in News?

On 11 May 2023, Uttarakhand's Rural Development Commissioner and Panchayat Director Anand Swaroop said that 7791 gram panchayats of the state will be made plastic-free, for which an action plan has been prepared.

Key Points

• Under this, with the help of three-tier panchayats, action will be taken from picking up plastic waste from every house to its disposal. Funds have been arranged for this work by the Central Government in the 15th Finance Commission.
• It may be noted that the 'Uttarakhand Plastic Waste Management Act' 2013 is applicable in the state. Plastic has reached every village but it was not being disposed of in the villages as per the arrangements given in the Act.
• Under the new scheme, work has already started to a large extent in 70 percent of the villages of the state.
• Under this, plastic waste will be collected from house to house at the Gram Panchayat level and transported to the door-to-door head. After this, this waste will be transported to the compactor through garbage vehicles at the area panchayat (block) level. The next task will be that of the district panchayats, who will transport the compacted waste to the plastic waste plant for disposal. This whole series will work under one cluster.
• Under this scheme, 95 vehicles (pickup vehicles) will be provided to 95 blocks of the state to pick up the plastic waste and take it to the compactor.
• Under this scheme, compactors are to be installed in all the 95 blocks of the state. While so far these have been installed in 69 blocks.
• Apart from this, the closed recycling plant has also been restarted in Haridwar, where compacted plastic waste will be disposed of.
• It is worth mentioning that in the year 2022, on a public interest petition filed by social activist Jitendra Yadav, the Uttarakhand High Court had directed the state government to make villages plastic-free. Along with this, instructions were also given to inform the court about the steps taken in this regard through an affidavit.