Chandigarh, September 7: Today, celebrating the third International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, the CPCC-Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee, Eco Club of Guru Nanak Public School & Yuvsatta-NGO organized a bicycle rally and later a training programme for Eco Club teachers of local schools.

The programme started little early in the morning with 200 young cyclists from DAV Model School, KBDAV Sr. Sec. Public School and St. Joseph’s Sr. Sec. School, in an air-pollution awareness bicycle rally from Parade Ground, Sector 17 to Sukhna Lake being flagged-off by Ms Anindita Mitra, IAS, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Mr. Debendra Dalai, IFS, CCF, Director, Environment & Vice Chairman-CPCC and Mr. Arulrajan, Member Secretary-CPCC.

Later addressing a gathering of Eco Club teachers from 50 prominent schools of the city at Guru Nanak Public School, Mr. Arulrajan P. said that ‘International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies’ focuses on the transboundary nature of air pollution highlighting the need for collective accountability and collective action. He further added that ‘Think Global & Act Local’ is the new age-mantra, as air pollution knows no national borders and is all pervasive. Moreover, it is strongly correlated to other global crises such as climate change, biodiversity loss, other forms of pollution, social and gender parity as well as economic development. So, the only answer is ‘be the change’ and CHANGE begins with you and me.

In her welcome address Ms. Gurnam Kaur Grewal, Principal, Guru Nanak Public School, said that ‘Let's make air clean for blue skies; let's prevent pollution, let's eradicate pollutants, let's eradicate negative vibes; spread optimism, love and oneness all around; let's grow more trees and make the air pristine; let's all join hands together to create awareness, conserve environment and ameliorate happiness of our City Beautiful Chandigarh who has already a highest index of happiness in the nation. Together we can and together we will.

Summing up the entire initiative an Innovative lead expert Mrs. Monica Chawla, Principal, St. Joseph’s Sr. Sec. School added that that 'environment protection' has now transformed into a 'need based challenge ' . It has gained impetus since the outbreak of the deadly diseases. She further emphasized on treating school as an ecosystem with three creative and critical thinkers as stakeholders - the Teacher- an Eco - Warrior, The Student- a Change Maker and the Parent - a Propeller . If all three collaborate to rewire and revamp the solutions the output will dynamically improve.

Prominent others who addressed the teachers included Mr. Sushil Dogra, Scientist, CPCC and Mr. Pramod Sharma, founder, Yuvsatta-NGO.