india

Updated: Oct 02, 2019 12:48 IST

Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said that on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary, the country should vow not to use single use plastic. Highlighting the dangers of plastic use, Shah said that given plastic takes as much as 400 years to decompose, the campaign has to be turned into a ‘jan andolan’ (people’s movement).

Addressing a gathering of Bharatiya Janata Party workers in New Delhi before flagging off the party’s Gandhi Sankalp Yatra, Shah - who is also BJP’s president - urged party workers to take an oath to shun the use of plastic.

“Now Modi ji has taken a pledge to liberate the country from single use plastic. It is also the responsibility of the people of the country and all BJP workers to make this a mass movement,” said the home minister.

He said starting Wednesday, every BJP party worker will undertake a ‘padyatra’ in their constituency till Octber 31 and cover 150 kilometres to bring Gandhiji’s values to the people. “We will work to spread the values of Swadesh, Swadharma, Swabhasha and Swadeshi to every village and village to house,” said Shah.

In his tribute to the Father of the Nation, Shah said, “The great man who showed the way to solve the problems of the whole world, who took the roots of democratic values down to the bottom of the world, (we) will take his ideas from village to village from 150th birth anniversary to 152nd birth anniversary.”

Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to embody the values of Gandhi, Shah said whether it was as Gujarat chief minister or now as the prime minister, Modi has worked to make cleanliness a mass movement.

He said similar efforts are being made to converse water and revive water bodies and rivers through the Jal Shakti ministry.

Later Shah flagged off BJP’s nation-wide ‘Gandhi Sankalp Yatra’, being undertaken to propagate the ideals of Father of the Nation including cleanliness, simplicity, use of khadi and non-violence.

The Union Minister also walked some distance with Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and other prominent leaders of the BJP to participate in the event.

(With agencies inputs)