First plastic-free civic bodies to be awarded in Uttarakhand

Rewards between Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore have been given to those civic bodies who will be able to make the areas under their jurisdiction plastic-free, said the Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat. He further said that to make the state plastic-free, the government has been mulling imposing fines on tourists entering with polythene and plastics.

Dehradun (Uttarakhand):The Uttarakhand civic bodies which get areas under their jurisdiction rid of plastic wastes and its use would be given cash awards between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore, Chief Minister (CM) Trivendra Singh Rawat has announced.

Making the announcement at a cleanliness survey programme on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said the municipal corporations achieving the feat will be awarded Rs one crore while the municipalities and Nagar panchayats which follow suit would get cash awards of Rs 75 lakh and Rs 50 lakh respectively.

Besides this, a municipal body in the state which finds a place among the first 100 civic bodies in the country to become plastic-free will get Rs 1 crore.

The cash award to be given to municipal corporations standing first, second and third in sanitation has also been increased three-fold to Rs 60 lakh, Rs 45 lakh and Rs 30 lakh respectively.

Earlier, they used to get Rs 20 lakh, Rs 15 lakh and Rs 10 lakh respectively.

Cash awards to be given to the first three municipalities in terms of cleanliness has also been given a three-fold hike. They will now get Rs 45 lakh, Rs 30 lakh and Rs 21 lakh instead of Rs 15 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs seven lakh respectively, an official release said.

The best ranking municipal corporations of Roorkee, Kashipur and Haldwani in terms of cleanliness were also awarded at the programme.

In a bid to make the state plastic-free, the government has also been mulling imposing fines on tourists entering it with polythene and plastic materials.