Thousands of school and college students took out a massive rally in the city on Friday to deliver a message on the hazards of plastic carry bags.
An initiative of the Madurai Chapter of Soroptimist International (SI), the students were also joined by people from various walks of life.
The rally was flagged off by the city Commissioner of Police, K. Nandabalan, in the presence of the Vice-Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University, R. Karpaga Kumaravel. The rally, which started at the Race Course Grounds, culminated at the Gandhi Memorial Museum where a function was held.
Speaking on the occasion, Karumuttu T. Kannan, Managing Director, Thiagarajar Mills, lauded the initiative against indiscriminate use of plastic bags. Pointing out that a serious change was occurring to the global climate, he said that the younger generation must confront the danger happening to the environment.
Besides giving away prizes to best placards during the rally, Mr. Kannan also launched the website of Madurai Chapter of SI.
R. Vasudevan, Dean, Thiagarajar College of Engineering (TCE), said that plastic by itself was not the danger and only its misuse caused problems.
Dr. Vasudevan, who invented and patented a technology to use plastic for laying roads, called for segregation of waste. He requested the SI to take an initiative to request schools to collect plastic bags through students.
Explaining his technology, he said that one tonne of plastic or ten lakh plastic carry bags could be utilised to lay one kilometre of road. A total of 2,500 km of such roads have been laid in Tamil Nadu besides at Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.
Speaking earlier, Anitha Rajarajan, president of SI Madurai Chapter, said that several educational institutions in the city had declared their campus to be ‘plastic free zone.’ They are Thiagarajar College, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Lady Doak College, K.L.N. College of Engineering besides several schools.
