Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr Harsh Vardhan has appealed to the teaching community to join the “Green Good Deeds” campaign, launched by theMinistry to sensitise the peopleand students, in particular, about climate change and global warming. Addressing about 700 principals of all government schools from North Delhi Municipal Corporation, the Minister said that environment is a matter of global concern, as never before.“The whole world is concerned about the dangers of global warming and climate change. People in Delhi are already facing air pollution. Environment and its effects on the life of human beings are now on the agenda at every global forum. Everyone is looking up to India with expectationbecause they think that Indians have the DNA to protect the environment. Our ancestors had made protection of environment an integral part of their lifestyle. It was a ‘part-n-parcel’ of our culture – our ancestors worshipped the rivers, air, trees or forests and earth andexisted in harmony with the land,” Dr Harsh Vardhan said.The Minister reminded the teachers of their “Green Social Responsibility” (GSR), similar to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Referring to the crucial role played by “Polio Sainiks” from municipal corporation schools in the Pulse Polio campaign, he underlined the need for “Green Sainiks” to broad-base the Green Good Deeds movement and to take it down to the grassroots level successfully.Dr. Harsh Vardhan said thatit is not impossible to restore our clean and green environment. “It is not merely a technical issue, but a moral responsibility ‘to restore and return the clean and green environment to the next generation”, he stated.With this objective in mind, the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change has launched a people-oriented campaign named “Green Good Deeds.” He said that the plan is to broad-base it with the involvement of teachers, students and other voluntary organisations.A mobile application – ‘Dr Harsh Vardhan’ has been devised to reach out to people across India on the campaign, has also been launched recently.Referring to the budgetary allocation for research in frontier areas of digital technology, Dr.Vardhan thanked the Prime Minister for his pragmatic vision for allocation of funds in the General Budget 2018. The Department of Science & Technology will launch a Mission on Cyber Physical Systems to support establishment of centres of excellence in areas of robotics, artificial intelligence, digital manufacturing, big data analysis, quantum communication and internet of things. “India does not lag behind any country in the world in science & technology,” Dr Vardhannoted.