Slogans to fight plastic menace

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Like the numerous slogans that have been created in a short time to support a new dam at Mullaperiyar, the City Corporation’s plastic-free city campaign is also looking out for slogans and songs that could take the message to the 100 wards in the local body.    Creative writing competitions are being planned by the Corporation as part of creating campaign materials for the drive against plastic. The Corporation Council that met here on Thursday to approve the ordinance brought into effect by amending the Kerala Municipality Rules by the state gave shape to the plastic-free campaign too.Not just that; poetic evenings, street painting competitions, children’s cultural programmes, street plays, documentary making, marches, awareness drive, seminars and conventions would mark the plastic-free campaign of the Corporation. Banners and posters would come up, while slides would be shown in theatres on the subject. The Corporation would also take stringent measures against those shopkeepers who sell plastic below 40 microns. The Corporation would also take steps to promote Kudumbashree units for making cloth-paper bags. In a bid to keep the efforts under a strict monitoring system, the Corporation has given shape to a core committee. Sub-committees would be formed in zonal offices to monitor the activities there. Under the campaign, it has been proposed that in every ward the activities should be spearheaded by a prominent face (ambassador). Students, NGOs, religious heads, residents’ associations - all should be part of the campaign. In the 100 wards, around 10,000 volunteers should be created who should visit houses, schools, offices, buses, trains and shops carrying the message against plastic.  They should collect plastic from these places, replace them with paper or cloth carry bags and bring the collected plastic to a common venue as a march. Here, in the presence of political leaders, including the Chief Minister and Opposition leader, a pledge to free the city off plastic should be taken.  Meanwhile, taking its decentralised waste management programme - ‘disposal at the source’ project - forward, the Corporation has decided to install ring-composts in around 2 lakh houses in the city. Those who come forward to install biogas plants would be given subsidies. The beneficiary need to pay only 25 per cent of the total cost of setting up the plant.