GUWAHATI, Sept 12 - The Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) will eliminate single-use plastic in a phased manner in the railway premises starting from October 2 this year in line with the pan-India policy adopted by Indian Railways.
This was announced by NFR General Manager Sanjive Roy while administering the �Swachhata� pledge to railway employees in a function organised at the zone�s headquarters here on the first day of the �Swachhata Hi Sewa� campaign that started on Wednesday. The campaign will continue till October 2.
A large number of staff and officers took the pledge, which was followed by a �Shramdaan� programme.
Similar programmes were organised in all the five divisional headquarters of NFR at Tinsukia, Lumding, Rangiya, Alipurduar and Katihar where Divisional Railway Managers administered the Swachhata pledge followed by Shramdaan by staff and officers.
Roy laid stress 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 the environment.
He appealed to railway employees to segregate all waste materials into biodegradable and non-biodegradable and put them in separate bins for proper disposal.
Roy also stressed the habit of recycling plastic materials as far as possible.
He said that NFR has planned to install plastic bottle crushers at all A-1 and A category stations by October 2.
It may be mentioned here that 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, educate and communicate all the stakeholders on resisting use of plastic, elimination of single-use plastic, and observing good sanitation habits, including prevention of open defecation and proper use of bio-toilets.
