Aamir Khan awards Puri district for plastic waste management

Bhubaneswar, Jan 13: Puri district has been awarded Swachhata Darpan Awards 2019 for innovations and initiatives for plastic waste anagement. The award was presented by actor and founder of Paani Foundation Aamir Khan at a special session of the open defecation free (ODF) sustainability workshop in New Delhi on Sunday. The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) and Ministry of Jal Shakti had organised workshop. The Swachhata Darpan Awards were presented by Khan to the best performing districts on key swachhata parameters. The awardees include East Godavari (Andhra Pradesh), West Kameng (Arunachal Pradesh), Bemtara (Chhattisgarh), Diu (Daman and Diu), Panipat (Haryana), Vadodara (Gujarat), Kolhapur (Maharashtra), Moga (Punjab), East Sikkim (Sikkim) and Pedappali (Telangana). Four districts - Dibrugarh (Assam), Sirmaur (Himachal Pradesh), Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Puri (Odisha) - were also awarded for innovations and initiatives for plastic waste management. Khan then interacted with the gathering of Collectors, district development committees (DDCs), chief development officers (CDOs) and other officials from selected states and lauded the work done at the grassroots by the officials and shared his experience with initiatives made by Paani Foundation in the area of water conservation. The gathered officials shared best practices from their districts for promoting ODF sustainability goals and explore areas for future initiatives with the celebrated actor.