The district administration has instructed political parties and candidates to ensure green protocol compliance in order to make the Lok Sabha elections environment-friendly.
It has been asked to avoid plastic, PVC, and disposable material and opt for eco-friendly, reusable and recyclable alternatives. While PVC and plastic should not be used for flags, boards, and banners, official advertisements and signages should be made entirely of cotton, paper, or polyethylene.
The use of all non-recyclable material with plastic content or coating such as Korean cloth, nylon, polyester, polyester cloth and boards will not be permitted. Legal action will be taken if prohibited material is used for campaigning and political parties have been directed to use eco-friendly products to decorate election offices.
Prohibited plastic items should be completely avoided while setting up polling booths and green protocol awareness sessions will be made part of training programmes for election officials. The use of plastic and other banned material in polling booths and counting centres should be restricted to the maximum. Polling officers and agents have been asked not to carry food items and drinking water in plastic bottles or containers.
Photo voter slips issued officially for election or distributed by political parties should not be left in the polling booth premises. The officials concerned have been directed to collect these and deliver them to the collection centres and hand them over to the scrap dealers.
After elections, LSGs, Haritha Kerala Mission, Suchitwa Mission, voluntary organisations, and various political parties should carry out cleaning drives to remove campaign materials.
