Rupesh Samant
Panaji (Goa) Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has made two important green announcements on the occasion of Goa Liberation Day today. He has said the state will ban use of plastic from May and it will be garbage-free by December, next year.
He was addressing the function to mark the Liberation Day of the State from Portuguese rule.
“From May 30 next year onwards, there will be complete ban on the plastic in the State. We are making this announcement in advance so that all those who have made it (plastic sale or manufacturing) as their economic activity, should not complaint at the last minute,” the Chief Minister said.
He said the ban would “not only be on plastic bags but also on other plastic items.”
Goa was given statehood from the status of Union Territory on May 30, 1987.
Parrikar said that Swaatch Bharat and Nitol Goem (Clean Goa) tops the list of priorities for the State government, which has already began taking steps towards it.
Parrikar announced that the State would be “garbage-free” by December 19 next year. “The initiative to make Goa garbage-free has already begun. The Solid Waste Management Corporation is in place and State has set up state of the art garbage treatment plant at Saligao,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that all the laws required to make Goa a garbage-free State would be notified by January 26, coming year.
To empower the panchayats to take up the work of garbage collection, Parrikar said that he has already given approval to increase the grants for these grass root level bodies.
Claiming that state’s economy is also dependent on cleanliness, Parrikar said that if we keep our surrounding and beaches clean, we will have more tourists visiting the State. “Our economy is dependent on the tourism of the State. If we want the tourists to come back, we should keep our touristic place clean,” he said.
Raising concern over the increasing deaths on the road due to accidents, Parrikar said that around 300 people lose their lives on the road while 2,000 are left with serious injuries.
He attributed the rise in accidents to factors like lack of discipline while driving, error in road engineering and dearth of fear of being caught while violating the traffic laws.
“We have decided to chalk a roadmap to curtail number of accidents on the road with the help of NGOs. I expect that during the coming year, the action would be placed in action reducing the road accidents and deaths to 150,” Parrikar said.
“The target is to make zero accidents and deaths on the road but that it impractical so the aim is to reduce the number by half,” he said.
Parrikar said that the infrastructural works worth Rs 25,000-30,000 would be implemented in the State during next five years which includes construction of bridges across Mandovi and Zuari rivers, the work for which has began.
