KODAIKANAL: All hill stations in the State should be declared plastic-free, said R.N. Choubey, Secretary of Civil Aviation, on Wednesday.
Interacting with officials here, he said that hill stations should be protected from plastic waste. The municipality should chalk out plans to make Kodaikanal town a plastic-free zone. Similarly, safe disposal of waste was also essential to protect hill areas. Sikkim was the first plastic-free and organic State in the country. To begin with, hill stations could be made plastic-free zones in Tamil Nadu, he added.
As water was a big issue on hill stations, requirement should be planned on the basis of demand of total population on the hill as well as flow of tourists, he pointed out. “We should strike a deal between forest protection and development. If possible, a resurvey of reserve forest areas could be done to protect the ecology and also take up developmental activities to promote tourism without disturbing natural resources.”
When shortage of staff in hospitals and schools on the hill was pointed out, Mr. Choubey suggested that district-level officers could be allowed to recruit eligible local people on contract to meet the shortage. Deputation of staff from plains would not solve this persistent problem as they would go back to their area after deputation period.
Speaking about the purpose of visit to Theni and Kodaikanal, he said that the Prime Minister had advised 60 senior Secretary-level IAS officers to go back to their first work place and know what kind of development had taken place in the last 30 years and what kind of development was needed for future. Such analysis would help the government in taking policy decisions on the basis of ground reality, he added.
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