MNM unveils 7-point agenda for environment

According to the agenda, the party would establish a circular economy, where recycling and reuse will be a norm for water, plastic and e-waste. “Incentivising production of non-plastic alternatives by household industries and self-help groups,” it said.

Unveiling the environmental agenda in Salem, Kamal said that the party would like to create ‘equipoise’ between big industries, agriculture and the environment. He said that Tamil Nadu had global standards on water management even 1,000 years ago and this should be achieved again. Laws should be enacted to punish people polluting water bodies, he noted.

On achievements claimed by the state through the kudimaramathu schemes, he claimed, “We are on a mission and that (kudimaramathu) is commission. It wouldn’t be right to compare both.” “There is garbage, plastic everywhere. It is a disease that has affected Tamil Nadu. It is everyone’s responsibility to bring an end to it,” he said. Industries are needed, but if rules were followed strictly, 13 persons would not have been killed in Thoothukudi,” he added.

Opposing Salem-Chennai green corridor project, he said, “Over 1.5 lakh palm trees and 2.5 lakh coconut trees and farming would be affected. Over 500 persons would lose their houses due to the project.”

MNM general secretary and former IAS officer Dr Santhosh Babu and party environmental wing secretary Padma Priya read out the seven-point agenda. The party said all pollution monitoring data will be published as a continuous stream through “OCEMS - Online Continuous Emission and Monitoring Systems” as per the Supreme Court directive of 2017.

The party has assured to bring in a comprehensive and stringent groundwater regulation for large scale harvesting of groundwater. A statewide environmental atlas will be developed for industrial sites on the CPCB criteria while encouraging green industries, it said, adding that the local environment committees comprising of local activists, TNPCB and the district administration in pollution hotspots to monitor compliance of pollution standards.