Berhampur: About 900 students of St Vincent Convent School here took out a rally in support of ban on plastic.
"The rally started from the school at 7.30am and went through the thoroughfares of the city with students shouting slogans in support of ban on plastic. Berhampur additional superintendent of police Shantanu Dash flagged off the rally.
"The use of plastic has posed a danger to the environment as well as the health of children. There is urgent need to plant trees to save the environment. Odisha generates about 27,859 tonnes of plastic waste per annum. That is why, we started such awareness first among the students. The school co-operated with us in this endeavour, and we would welcome if other schools come forward in such awareness campaign," said Rotary project chairman Mihir R. Panigrahi.
"I must thank all the students, teachers and the school principal for their sincere co-operation. We requested the students to completely avoid the use of plastic bottle for drinking purposes," said the Rotary Club president Srinivas Prusty.
"Apart from the rally, we distributed about 500 non-polythene standard-sized bags to the vendors in the Mardarajpur Vending Zone free of cost and requested them to adopt the bags as the best substitute. We purchased 1,000 such bags and are planning to arrange and distribute 10 thousand such bags this year to inspire others to avoid polythene bags," said Panigrahi.
"Each bag costs Rs 5 to Rs 7. But when ordered in bulk, each cost would be Rs 4 to Rs 5," Gift House owner A. Anil said.
Plastic ban would be in two phases in the state. The first phase of the ban would include cities such as Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur and Rourkela on October 2 and the entire state would be made plastic-free over the next two years. While the housing and urban development department will enforce the ban in the municipal corporations and urban local bodies, the panchayati raj department will enforce it in the rural areas. The forest and environment department will oversee the plastic pollution-control measures in the state, sources said.
