NF Railway to eliminate single-use plastic

Dimapur, Sep. 11 (EMN): The Northeast Frontier Railways will eliminate ‘single-use’ plastic in phased manner in railway premises starting from October 2, in line with the pan-India policy adopted by Indian Railways. This was announced by the General Manager Sanjive Roy while administering the ‘Swachhata’ (Cleanliness) Pledge to railway employees in a solemn function organised at NF Railway Headquarters on the first day of the “Swachhata Hi Sewa” campaign that started on Wednesday, stated the chief public relations officer of NF Railway in Maligaon in an update. The campaign will continue till October 2. A large number of staff and officers took the pledge, which was followed by a “Shramdaan” programme where the participants embarked upon cleaning the NF Railway Headquarters complex. Similar programmes were organised in all five divisional headquarter of NF Railway at Tinsukia, Lumding, Rangiya, Alipurduar, and Katihar where Divisional Railway Managers administered the Swachhata Pledge followed by ‘Shramdaan’ by staff and officers. The general manager also stressed on building awareness among rail users and railway employees on excessive use of plastic which is posing a serious threat to human civilisation in terms of destruction of environment. He appealed to railway employees to segregate all waste materials into bio-degradable and non-bio-degradable and put them in separate bins for proper disposal. Roy also stressed on the habit of recycling plastic material as far as possible. He said, NF Railway has planned to install plastic bottle crushers at all A-1 and A category stations within October 2. It may be mentioned here that the Indian Railways is observing a special cleanliness drive from September 11 to October 2, this year. A number of activities have been planned during this period to inform, educate and communicate all the stakeholders on resisting use of plastic, elimination of single-use plastic, observing good sanitation habits including prevention of open defecation and proper use of bio-toilets.