Noida Authority goofs-up with plastic Raavana effigy

With India gearing up to ban plastic, the Noida authority in its over enthusiasm declared that it will burn a Raavana effigy made of plastic waste on Dushera, only to issue a clarification later realizing the goof-up.

"Noida will burn effigy of Ravana made from plastic waste on the occasion of Vijay Dashmi", the official handle of Noida authority's CEO had tweeted on Wednesday.

However, after two hours a clarification came from the same handle and the previous tweet was deleted.

"Clarification-Noida plastic waste collected during Swachhata Hi Seva campaign to be used to make symbolic RAAVAN on eve of Dussehra; and sent for further use by cement industry; by cement manufacturing association with Noida authority to showcase evil of single use plastic," the authority said.

When contacted to the Noida Authority CEO, Ritu Maheshwari she claimed that the initial tweet was an error by her media team which was later rectified by her 'personally', when she saw the tweet.

"The initial tweet which claimed of burning plastic-waste made Raavana effigy on Vijay Dashmi, was a mistake by media team, which when came to my notice was rectified immediately and personally," Maheshwari told IANS.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in December 2016 had imposed a complete ban on burning of waste in open places and announced a fine of Rs 25,000 on each incident of bulk waste burning.

"We direct that there shall be complete prohibition on open burning of waste on lands, including at landfill sites.

"For each such incident, violators, including project proponent, concessionaire, any person or body responsible for such burning, shall be liable to pay environmental compensation of Rs 5,000 in case of simple burning, while Rs 25,000 in case of bulk waste burning," a Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar had said.IANS