The National Cadet Corps (NCC) and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to reuse plastic wastes collected by NCC cadets during Puneet Sagar Abhiyan and other cleanliness activities in country-wide road construction by NHAI.
To promote and create favourable conditions for environmental safety, NCC has initiated the nationwide campaign, Puneet Sagar Abhiyan, beginning 1 December 2021, to clean beaches off the plastic and other wastes along the seashores and increase awareness about the importance of keeping these places free from plastic wastes.
Director General NCC Lt. Gen. Gurbirpal Singh and Chief General Manager, NHAI Sushil Kumar Mishra signed and exchanged the MoU. The National Cadet Corps has also approached IITs and NIITs for their cooperation in recycling and gainful utilisation of the plastic wastes collected. IIT Kharagpur has already agreed to extend its technical expertise in this. The National Cadet Corps is also approaching NGOs involved in recycling plastic wastes. One such NGO, Odisha Yuva Chetana Sangathan has agreed to help.
Puneet Sagar Abhiyan also aims at propagating the message of the importance of clean seashores among the local population and future generations. A total of 3,40,000 cadets from 127 Coastal Area NCC Units are participating in the month-long activity. So far, the NCC cadets at different locations have collected plastic wastes amounting to almost 6 tonnes. The collected waste is planned to be handed over to NHAI to be used in road construction. The cadets are interacting with the public, tourists, local shopkeepers/vendors and fishermen along with the coastal areas, distributing pamphlets, administering oaths to the target population, performing theme-based Nukkad Nataks and rallies/foot patrols to drive home the message of the importance of clean sea beaches. To date, almost 1.5 lakh cadets at 64 different locations have participated in the campaign and impacted approximately 17 lakh people.