MCH seizes 350 kgs of plastic cans, aims to introduce glass bottles to carry Ganga water

Saturday, 09 April 2022 | PNS | Dehradun

Considering the usage of prohibited plastic cans to carry or store holy water of the Ganga river by pilgrims throughout the year, the Municipal Corporation of Haridwar (MCH) is planning to introduce affordable glass bottles as a replacement. The corporation has been working on making the city plastic-free since the beginning of this year. Recently six teams of the corporation conducted inspections of several Ghats including Alaknanda Ghat, Vishnu Ghat, Kangda Ghat and Mahila Ghat among others and seized about 350 kilogrammes of prohibited plastic cans. The teams also collected a penalty of about Rs 7,000 from vendors selling the cans near the Ghats. The officials stated that such cans cannot be sold near Ghats as per the directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT). Considering the importance they hold for pilgrims to carry the holy Ganga water, the MCD is planning to work on introducing affordable glass bottles for such purposes. The municipal commissioner of Haridwar, Dayanand Saraswati told The Pioneer that he will soon conduct a meeting with organisations and officials that can help them to provide affordable glass bottles. “We are also planning to involve self-help groups (SHGs) of women that could make the bottles which can be used instead of plastic cans. Besides benefiting the environment, this initiative will also provide employment opportunities to the women,” said the commissioner. The teams will work on making the bottles lighter but durable and easy to carry for pilgrims. He added that the MCH team is consistently working on making improvements in all sanitation aspects of the city which will be visible in the results of Swachch Survekshan 2022 too. It is pertinent to mention here that lakhs of pilgrims visiting Haridwar throughout the year also take away water of the Ganga and most of them use plastic containers for the purpose.