New nature policy to focus on harvesting rain water: Muhammed Y Safirulla
KOCHI: District Collector Muhammed Y Safirulla has said that a pro-environment policy will be evolved on a wide spectrum as part of the Haritha Keralam project in the district. He said that rain water harvesting and proper managing of e-waste would get top priority in this. “In the next phase of Haritha Keralam, emphasis will be laid on building rain water harvesting units in every government institution including the District Collectorate. This will be one of the key initiatives by the district administration to meet water shortage,” Mr Safirulla said at a review meeting on the Haritha Keralam project held with Haritha Kerala Mission vice-chairperson Ms T N Seema in chair.
The District Collector said that there has to be a practical asset policy in disposing e-waste from government office. “The asset depreciation period of IT instruments in government offices has been fixed at seven years currently. Because of this the officials can dispense with an IT instrument only after seven years. However, most of the electronic and IT instruments turn obsolete in four years. The current asset policy does not take into consideration this. Hence a practical change is needed in this,” Safirulla who was the former IT Mission Director, said.
Suchithwa Mission district co-ordinator Siju Thomas said that five marriage functions were held in the district conforming to the green protocol in the past two weeks. Schools are also following green protocols. Measures are being taken to plant more trees also. Panchayats will be asked to implement programme for plastic waste disposal in one month. Kudumbasree district co-ordinator Tani Thomas said that under the self-help group, 453 acres were identified for cultivation, out of which in 224 acre cultivation has already started. A total of 803 water sources were cleaned under Kudumbasree. Demand for restriction on mining for bore well and preventing disposal of plastic in mangrove forests too came up in the meet. A vehicle going to Hyderabad for recycling e-waste was also flagged off on the occasion.
