Team Yogi collects waste, roots for ‘no-plastic cause’

LUCKNOW : Chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his 55 ministers took up the task of collecting waste to espouse the ‘no-plastic’ cause on Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary in Lucknow on Wednesday.

Members of Team Yogi pulled out ‘single use’ plastic from waste in a majority of the 110 wards of the state capital.

At the same time, bureaucrats were busy thinking of innovative ways to complement the efforts of the politicians. For instance, Mukesh Meshram, Lucknow’s divisional commissioner, was seen painting the tricolour near a life-size sketch of Mahatma Gandhi on the walls of the Kendriya Vidyalaya, Gomtinagar.

In fact, KV Gomtinagar is one of the two schools in the state capital – the other being KV Aliganj – whose students have been engaged to beautify walls.

“The idea is to ensure that initially a 500-metre radius around these schools becomes clean. Thereafter, we also plan to encourage colleges having fine arts departments to join in beautifying the city, giving it an aesthetic look,” Meshram said.

Adityanath set the agenda of the day by distributing cloth bags at the 1090 Crossing from where he also flagged off a rally to make people aware of the hazards of single-use plastic, especially ones below 50 microns that his government has already banned.Subsequently, he arrived at the Gandhi crossing from where he, along with BJP functionaries and ministers, undertook a padyatra till near his 5-Kalidas Marg residence. “In the distance of around a kilometre, he must have spotted and picked plastic at nearly 60 places. He also visited a hospital en route and ordered that cleanliness be ensured,” said Nagendra Singh Chauhan, a BJP corporator of Vikramaditya ward. Chauhan was seen assisting Adityanath during the padyatra.

An order passed by additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi says police station in-charges, civic officials, even magistrates and senior police officers would be held accountable if banned plastic (below 50 microns) was sold in areas under their jurisdiction. “We would prefer people using clay utensils to replace polythene and for this we have set up a Maati Kala board,” Adityanath said.

Deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, energy minister Shrikant Sharma, Jal Shakti minister Mahendra Singh, UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh were also seen popularising the ‘stay clean, no-toplastic’ message. Some like Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi’, the minorities welfare minister, were spotted checking if lanes and by-lanes in the state capital were free of dirt and plastic.