Udupi : K. Raghupati Bhat, MLA, said on Wednesday that Mahatma Gandhi had given importance to cleanliness and hence, it was necessary to follow his message and make Udupi, a clean and plastic-free city.

He was speaking after offering floral tributes to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Bhujanga Park, Ajjarkad, during a function organised by the district administration, the Udupi City Municipal Council and other organisations to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Mr. Bhat released a booklet “Papu Bapu” written by writer Bolwar Mohammed Kunhi and also launched a drive against plastic on the occasion.

Mahatma Gandhi’s only visit to Udupi was on February 25, 1934 and he had addressed a public meeting at Ajjarkad then.

Mr. Bhat said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission five years ago to promote cleanliness in the country to realise Mahatma Gandhi’s dream. He wanted the mindset of the people in the country with regard to cleanliness and sanitation to change.

People should start using cloth bags and shun plastic bags when they went shopping. They should buy at least 10 cloth bags which they could use for their shopping purposes, he said.

The Solid Waste Management Plant located on 22 acres land at Karvalo here was getting filled, he said.

There would be no place available at Karvalo for land-filling with garbage after two years. Most of the garbage comprised plastic items, he said.

The Udupi City Municipal Council had banned the use of single-use plastic, flex boards and other related items.

He would chair a meeting of plastic and flex vendors on Saturday and explain to them that there was no going back on the ban, Mr. Bhat said.

Deputy Commissioner G. Jagadeesh said that students should follow at least a few ideals of Mahatma Gandhi if not all. The State government had already decided to arrange a tour of schoolchildren to places visited by Mahatma Gandhi so that they could be told about the reasons of his visit.

The government had already decided to start Solid and Liquid Resource Management Centres in 1,000 gram panchayats to deal with garbage management, he said.

Dayananda K. Shetty Dendur delivered a special lecture on the life and ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. Dinakar Babu, president of the Udupi Zilla Panchayat, Neeta Poojary, president of Udupi Taluk Panchayat, Rashmi Chittaranjan, municipal councillor, were present.