Now, a campaign to make our netas go green

The Bangalore Eco Team and Whitefield Rising (WR) have launched a campaign to turn elected representatives ‘Green Ambassadors.” As part of the drive, the people’s representatives have to take a pledge on not using plastic at their party meets.

A month into the drive has seen five corporators and two MLAs vowing to adopt eco-friendly methods at the political events they take part. Instead, they are encouraged to use eco-friendly banners and flex boards and also promote segregation of waste at their respective offices.

Yagnalakshmi Ramachandralu, a volunteer from the Bangalore Eco team and WR said that banners of political parties all across the city prompted them to launch the initiative.

“Initially, we started the campaign at Mahadevapura zone where five out of eight corporators from the zone took the pledge. Now, the drive has made its way to Bytarayanapura constituency where a corporator and an MLA have come forward to turn Green Ambassadors. Our aim is to reach all the 198 corporators and 28 MLAs in the city,” Ramachandrulu said, adding that there has been a “positive change” in the people in keeping the city clean.

However, the volunteers for the campaign said that the workers of political parties and supporters of elected representatives were unaware of the ban on plastic and the eco-friendly alternatives. They said that they have suggested the political leaders to educate their cadres in this regard.

“Most of the posters during a party event are put up by the supporters of the elected representatives. So, if the leaders follow the green path, the workers will surely follow the same,” Allen Joseph, a volunteer said.

The elected representatives who have turned Green Ambassadors are: Agriculture Minister Krishna Byregowda (Byatarayanapura); MLA   Aravind Limbavali (Mahadevapura); corporators S Muniswamy (Kadugodi), Shwetha Vijayakumar (Doddanekkundi), Ramesh (Marathahalli), S Udaykumar (Hagadur), Pushpa Manjunath (Varthur) and Manjunath Babu (Byatarayanapura).