Indore: The Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has started a unique initiative to make the city plastic-free. The civic body has installed ATM-like machines for cloth bags at five main market locations in the city in which one can deposit a Rs 10 coin or a Rs 10 note to get a bag. IMC Commissioner Pratibha Pal said,
Since single-use plastic is banned in the city, cloth bag machines have been installed. To make the city plastic-free, we have installed five such machines in the city’s markets to stop people from using plastic bags.
“If the experiment is successful, more such machines will be installed in the city. Indore is the first city in Madhya Pradesh where such a machine has been installed,” Ms Pal added.
Gunjan Sharma, president of 56 Shop Association, the city’s famous food street, said,
This experiment is very useful. We have made the ’56 Shops’ plastic-free. People coming from elsewhere were not aware of such machines and are finding them extremely useful. Such machines should also be installed at vegetable markets.
Sanjay Karoiya, who came to buy a cloth bag from one of the installed machines, said more such innovative devices should be installed to make the city more environment-friendly and plastic-free.
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NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diarrhoea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
