No plastic bottles, only soft copies in meetings: UP government’s latest push to save environment

Lucknow, February 28

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has directed state departments not to use plastic water bottles in meetings and encourage the use of soft copies in its bid to do away with single-use plastic and avoid wastage of paper to protect the environment.

The directive in this regard has been issued by Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, an official said here on Tuesday.

Mishra, in his directive, said despite repeated instructions, the departments have been presenting plastic cover and single-sided printed booklets, and that misuse of paper and use of plastic was not appropriate considering its adverse impact on the environment.

He directed the officials to show sensitivity towards environment and climate change.

The directives issued included maximum use of soft copy by all government officers and department heads, use of physical (hard) copy should be minimised and whenever there is a need to print, double sided printing should be done.

It said plastic cover and spiral binding should not be used and all the files should be sent through e-office.