The Noida authorities announced that they will be starting a ‘say no to plastic’ initiative in which they will be distributing cloth bags from July 4th onwards. Their aim is to make the public aware of the harmful effects of plastic on the environment and prevent the use of it. Alok Tandon, authority CEO said: “Our motive is to make Noida a no-plastic city, where people completely stop depending upon plastic bags. We want to enforce the plastic ban effectively with the help of residents, social groups, corporate houses and other interested individuals. We want to make Noida a sustainable city, where we do not cause any harm to ecology.”

Cloth bags will be handed out to vendors, traders and individual residents. Lalit Thukral from Mod Print, Rakesh Batla from Radiant Exports and Pramila Khanna from Khanna Associates have stepped forward to support the initiative. Rajeev Tyagi, general manager of the Noida authority said: “If we use plastic bags to carry vegetables and other items, it finally reaches the landfill, drains or other vacant spaces, thereby causing ecological problems. If we are able to completely do away with plastic bags, the problem of choked drains, which is very common in Noida, can also be resolved to a large extent.”

The UP state government had already imposed a ban last year but the enforcement and penalization of offenders were not stringent enough. Tyagi reports: “We will take all required steps to make Noida a plastic-free city.” Hopefully moving forward the campaign will be more successful.