The district panchayat has joined the ‘Plastic-free Sabarimala’ campaign, launched jointly by the district administration, Sanitation Mission, and the Kudumbasree Mission, at a function held at Laha on the Pathanamthitta-Pampa main trunk road leading to Sabarimala on Monday.
Inaugurating the programme, district panchayat president R. Haridas Edathitta said that the campaign would soon be strengthened by ensuring the participation of more departments and voluntary agencies.
The district panchayat would deploy volunteers to make Sabarimala pilgrims aware of the importance of keeping the pilgrim centre situated in the Periyar Tiger Reserve plastic-free.
As part of the campaign, volunteers supplied cloth bags in exchange of plastic carry bags to Sabarimala pilgrims and affixed awareness stickers in different South Indian languages on the Sabarimala-bound vehicles.
They also distributed pamphlets stressing the need to keep Sabarimala plastic-free among the pilgrims.
Mr. Haridas said that the district panchayat would continue the campaign during every five-day monthly puja period at Sabarimala.
District Collector S. Harikishore, who was the driving spirit behind the pilot project launched by the district administration, presided over the function.
Series of programmes
The district administration had organised a series of public awareness programmes as part of the campaign during the previous annual pilgrim season.
Sriram Venkitaraman, Assistant Collector; Ambika Mohan and S. Haridas, district Panchayat members; S. Janardhanan, Divisional Forest Officer; S. Sabir Hussein, Kudumbasree Mission district co-ordinator, and E.K. Sudhakaran, Sanitation Mission district co-ordinator, addressed the function.
