Don’t use single-use plastic during election campaigning: ECI to all parties

Bhubaneswar: With general elections round the corner, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed all national and regional political parties to use environment-friendly campaign materials for the elections.

As per the recommendation of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the ECI has instructed all recognised political parties to take up sustainable practices and use environment-friendly campaign materials as an alternate to single-use plastic during the elections.

In a letter to all Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs), the ECI said, “All political parties should take adequate steps and measures to not use single-use plastic as campaign materials such as posters and banners during the elections in the interest of human health and environment.”

“A lot of campaigning materials, including posters, cut-outs, hoardings, banners, political advertisements, etc are made of plastic. Such single-use plastic waste generated during campaigning does not get collected and causes choking of drainage and river systems, ingestion by stray animals, land and water pollution,open air burning, etc leading  to adverse impacts on human health and environment,” the ECI mentioned in the advisory.

In this context, all the CEOs have been directed to inform all District Election Officers (DEOs) and ROs (Returning Officers) to bring the above instructions in the knowledge of all political parties and candidates for compliance.