With the aim to get rid of plastic waste in villages, the Yogi Adityanath government has made plans to set up collection centres for plastic waste at 250 places in the state in the next two years and use the waste plastic for road construction.

“The Panchayati Raj department is preparing an action plan for the preparation and selection of sites in development blocks in the next six months so that waste plastic collection centres could be set up there,” a government spokesman said.

Plastic, which causes pollution, reduces the groundwater level by destroying the fertility of the land. Its use increases the risk of cancer along with respiratory and skin diseases. Plastic is so dangerous that it can even stop the development of the fetus. The smoke released from burning polythene is damaging the ozone layer, which is a major cause of global warming.

In view of all these ill-effects, the state government has taken the initiative to make the cities as well as villages plastic free.

“The plastic waste management emphasises taking steps to reduce the production of plastic waste, prevent the spread of plastic waste and ensure separate storage for plastic waste. Under the new rule it would be the responsibilities of local bodies, village panchayats, waste producers, retailers and footpath vendors for the management of plastic waste,” the government official said.

He said this was a big step in Yogi government 2.0 as in its first term the Yogi government had made a big achievement of making all gram panchayats open defecation free with the construction of 2.18 crore individual toilets.

 “Now, in its second term, the government has started a campaign to rid the state of plastic,” the official said.