"Give plastic and take gold": Unique initiative to make environment pollution-free in J&K

A panchayat in Jammu and Kashmir initiated an environment-friendly initiative offering gold coins for collecting plastic waste for saving the environment in Jammu and Kashmir

Anantnag (Jammu and Kashmir): In a unique and environment-friendly initiative, a village in Kashmir, Sadiwara in Hiller Shahabad block of south Kashmir's Anantnag district started offering gold coins for collecting plastic waste for saving the environment. The unique mission was launched to save the environment.

The campaign has been named 'Give plastic and take gold'. The panchayat informed that it will give a gold coin if someone gives plastic waste of 20 quintals. Farooq Ahmad Ganai, a lawyer and sarpanch of Sadiwara, has become an inspiration in Kashmir. After the launch of the campaign, the whole village was declared plastic free within 15 days.

As the campaign gained popularity, the other panchayats appreciated and adopted the scheme. Talking to ANI, Farooq Ahmad Ganai said, "In my village, I started a slogan to give polythene and to get a reward in return. I took the initiative to clean the rivers and streams. Now everyone in the village helped us to clear the sites."

The village, which had heaps of plastic thrown on the roads and streets, is now completely clean and all the plastic that is collected is handed over to the panchayat members. Sadiwara Youth Club's president Shakeel Wani said that the locals had shown interest when the panchayat asked them to collect plastic waste from roads, rivers and garbage dumps

Assistant Commissioner Development Anantnag Riyaz Ahmad said," Under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan-II we have to make our village polythene and garbage-free and in this regard, Sadiwara panchayat, along with the district administration, launched this model and this is not government scheme. We took this initiative to motivate people to clean their villages." (With Agency Inputs)