Plastic bottles fall out of favour in Yogi office, home

Nine days after his government banned plastic bags, cups and glasses across the state, plastic bottles became a no-no at chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s ‘pancham tal’ or fifth floor annexe office from Tuesday.

Officers of the chief minister’s office (CMO) said that mineral water bottles will now also be banned from Adityanath’s official residence at 5-Kalidas Marg.

Earlier in the day, Adityanath was served water from a steel flask when he was chairing a state cabinet meeting. However, the ministers at the cabinet meeting had plastic mineral water bottles to drink from.

Shortly afterwards, Adityanath and all the officers had steel flasks in front of them at another meeting in his own office.

“The CM wanted to make the beginning from his office and home. He has started. It’s up to the officers to comply,” the chief minister’s advisor Mrityunjay Kumar said.

Officers too are mulling banning plastic bottles in their meetings.

“We, too, are surely going to implement a similar move in the state secretariat,” Mahesh Gupta, principal secretary of the secretariat administration department (SAD), said.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too is expected to follow suit. But it’s not clear when they will execute the plan that chief minister has already put in place at his office.

On Saturday, UP had witnessed its first no plastic political rally featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Instead of mineral water bottles, earthen pots were used to serve water to the VIPs. The crowd was given water in paper glasses.

From August 15, the government plans to ban plastic above 50 microns too in a phased manner.