NFR to eliminate single-use plastic

Guwahati, September 11 (MEXN): The Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) 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, an official stated on Wednesday.

This was announced by the NFR’s General Manager Sanjive Roy while administering the ‘Swachhata’ (Cleanliness) Pledge to railway employees in function organized at its Headquarters on the first day of the “Swachhata Hi Sewa” campaign which kicked off  on September 11.

The campaign will continue till October 2 and a large number of staff and officers took the pledge, which was followed by a “Shramdaan” programme where the participants embarked upon cleaning the Headquarters complex, informed a press release from NFR Chief Public Relations Officer, Subhanan Chanda.

Similar programme were organized in all five divisional headquarter of NFR at Tinsukia, Lumding, Rangiya, Alipurduar and Katihar where Divisional Railway Managers administered the pledges followed by ‘Shramdaan’ by staff and officers, it said.   

Roy also stressed on building awareness among rail users and railway employees on excessive use of plastic which is posing a serious threat to human civilization in terms of destruction of environment, it added.

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.

NFR has planned to install plastic bottle crushers at all A-1 and A category stations within October 2, the General Manager informed.

The India Railways is observing a special cleanliness drive from September 11 to October 2.

A number of activities have been planned during this period to inform and educate 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, the release added.