Vijayawada: Energy and environment minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy has called for protection of the environment through curbs on use of plastic.
The minister was taking part in a programme marking World Environment Day under the aegis of the AP Pollution Control Board here on Monday. He inaugurated the ‘Anytime Bag Vending Machine’ that would supply cloth bags as an alternative to plastic carry bags.
The minister noted that World Environment Day has been observed every year on June 5 since 1975, as was declared by UNO. This year, the world was observing the day with the theme of impact of use of plastic on the environment and solutions to deal with it.
He said the state had imposed a complete ban on use of single-use plastic in Tirumala and other temples and municipal corporations in the state. “AP stood in the top position in the Mission Life programme announced by the Centre,” he said.
“As per guidelines issued by the Centre, we are taking up conservation of water, energy saving, adoption of healthy lifestyle etc. With regard to solar power generation, we got investments worth RS 9 lakh crore for non-conventional energy out of Rs 13 lakh crore in the Global Investor Summit held in Visakhapatnam recently.”
For the first time in the country, AP set up a state-level environmental management corporation.
Environment special chief secretary Neerab Prasad said that they were taking several initiatives through APPCB to bring down pollution levels in air and water and closely monitoring the solid waste management initiatives.
APPCB member secretary B. Sridhar said the board would implement new norms to curb use of plastic.
